The State government has begun distribution of Arsenicum Album 30C tablets among schoolchildren despite stiff opposition from practitioners of modern medicine, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP).
It was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who opened the State-level launch of the three-day ‘Karuthalode Munnottu’ campaign on Monday. The tablets are being given between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mr. Vijayan said that the effort would be to ensure immunity among children using the “effective immunity in homeo medicines”.
A helpline has also been launched to clear doubts and homeo medical officers can be approached to allay fears, the Chief Minister said. Three pills are proposed to be given to the children three times in a gap of 21 days.
However, just a day ahead of the launch on October 24, the IMA Kerala State branch again urged the government to withdraw from the campaign, pointing out that the medicine had not been scientifically tested anywhere in the world and its efficacy had not been proved. The IMA also requested parents not to allow the medicine to be experimented in their kids, in whom chances of serious infection were rare. They might not need any vaccine as well, the doctors’ body said.
‘False sense of security’
Meanwhile, the IAP said that Arsenicum Album was not an evidence-based medicine for COVID-19. Giving away this medicine would give a false sense of security to parents, teachers, and students, which may in turn lead to new outbreaks.
The students may also not follow the SMS model of social distancing, face masks, and sanitising because of the false feeling, the IAP said.
