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Indians turn to unproven remedies amid shortage of Covid-19 drugs

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (right) with yoga guru Baba Ramdev  - Sajjad Hussain/AFP
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi (right) with yoga guru Baba Ramdev - Sajjad Hussain/AFP
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

Indians are turning to an untested traditional cure for Covid-19, produced by Baba Ramdev, a billionaire televangelist and Hindu yogi with close ties to Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister.

A quick trip to one of New Delhi’s leading pharmacies reveals shelves stocked with Mr Ramdev’s Covid-19 kit, which he claims provides a guaranteed cure for the virus in just seven days.

The Indian Government has instructed Mr Ramdev to sell his Coronil tablets, which contain basil and ginseng, as an immunity booster rather than a cure, as the product has not undergone clinical trials.

Mr Ramdev is a controversial figure in India, not least because he suggested yoga could be used as a cure for homosexuality, but his teachings are held in high regard by many conservative Hindus.

Indian public hospitals are already facing shortages of Covid-19 drugs, including remdesivir and tocilizumab, as the country becomes only the third to pass the grim milestone of two million cases, with a peak not expected until November.

Patients have reported paying over £2,500 for six vials of remdesivir on the Indian black market but it is a sum that out of reach of most people in a country where just over 10 per cent of citizens still live on less than £1.50 a day.

Unproven cures, like Mr Ramdev’s Coronil tablets which cost approximately £5, have filled the gap in a country where cheap, alternative Ayurvedic remedies have long been held in the same light as “Western medicine” by many.

While public health experts say that alternative medicines may have a role in promoting a healthy lifestyle, they stress that measures like Coronil tablets have not been shown to combat Covid-19 in any clinical trials.

“People are welcome to try these measures but must always remember that these cannot replace the proven scientific interventions that are available today,” said Dr Jyoti Joshi,  the head of south Asia at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Indians have faced a variety of unusual touted cures and the most extreme has been that of drinking cow urine, with the animal considered holy in Hinduism.

In New Delhi, over 200 Hindu conservatives gathered to drink the unpalatable liquid believing it to possess medicinal properties. There have also been reports from Tamil Nadu of villages spraying their streets with a turmeric mixture, due to shortages in sanitizer as prices underwent a steep increase.

And an Indian MP from the southern state of Telangana even became an overnight Twitter celebrity after recommending his constituents use an ancient yogi nasal cleansing ritual to ward off the deadly virus.

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