Indigenous medical system for Covid-19 | Sunday Observer

Indigenous medical system for Covid-19

30 May, 2021

With the Ministry of Health on May 23 deciding to convert 50 Ayurvedic Hospitals islandwide as Intermediate Covid Treatment Centres, hope is renewed of Sri Lanka’s unique indigenous medical heritage being used at a time when the country needs it most; to curtail the impact of the Coronavirus on the population.

Ayurveda Dr. P. Hewagamage, President of the Government Ayurveda Medical Officers Association in an interview with the writer said that a specific Ayurveda based treatment protocol has now been made for this current pandemic phase, in addition to the treatment protocol made for the previous Coronavirus phases.

By this week the Nawinna Ayurveda Research hospital (with 100 beds) will be opened for Covid-19 patients.

The equipment as in the case of Western hospitals will be provided to handle complications such as breathing difficulties faced by some patients as a health complication seen in this particular wave, Dr. Hewagamage said.

Western doctors will also be at hand to observe the condition of the patient as relevant to the Western medical tradition. However, the main treatment for Covid-19 within our hospitals will be the Ayurvedic.

Serious complications

He said that only patients with mild Covid-19 symptoms will be treated at the Ayurvedic hospitals. Those with serious complications cannot be admitted to Ayurvedic hospitals because of the lack of ICU facilities,” he said.

Asked if traditional physicians (Wedamahattayas) who say they have proof of treating quarantine centres especially during the first and second wave of the virus last year, and also treating Covid-19 patients (who have approached them on their own volition), he said that according to the existing laws of the country pertaining to national health that Ayurveda doctors cannot take independent decisions to accommodate Wedamahattayas within the formal Ayurvedic hospital setting.

“Any citizen of the land who feels confident about getting any treatment from a Wedamahattaya for preventive and curative medication for Covid-19 can do so as per their independent right but there is no possibility of accommodating them in the mainstream hospital methods as per the existing regulations.’

“The ideal solution for this the way I see it is to allocate separate hospitals for traditional medical practitioners (Paramparika wedamahattayas) to be able to treat Covid-19 patients. The government can consider this,”he said.

Asked about the Ayurveda Medical Council (Waidya Sabha) membership he stated that over 95 percent of the members are traditional physicians (Paramparika). There are about 25,000 members in the Ayurveda Medical Council. Ayurvedic doctors (Ayurveda graduates) are only 5,000.

Meanwhile, senior Ayurveda officials also explain that under the existing National Health Policy only Allopathy is recognised as the official mainstream health system.

They said that formal policy changes are required for giving Sri Lankan Ayurveda the same recognition. This will enable maximum benefit for the nation to use the Sri Lankan Ayurveda system in practice in full strength in these challenging times.

“What is needed is unison and wisdom in proceeding further. Right now we are grateful for the special directive by the government on the use of Ayurveda hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients and we hope to cooperate fully for the benefit of Sri Lankans,” Dr. Hewagamage said.

“We salute the efforts of all the exceptionally skilled traditional physicians of Sri Lanka (Wedamahattayas). We Ayurveda doctors greatly respect these physicians and want their expertise used for the country,” Dr. Hewagamage asserted.

“We Ayurveda doctors stand by supporting these physicians and I have personally compiled detailed accounts of different Wedaparamparawas in a bid to support them,” he said.

Asked whether special provision cannot be made under the current crisis situation pertaining to health, for the thousands of Wedamahattayas to be able to prevent deaths and heal patients in the shortest possible duration by heightening their immunity and minimise the after effects of the illness Dr. Hewagamage and other high level Ayurveda officials state that for this to be done within the current health system, serious policy level changes and/or special permission is needed.

“There are several traditional physicians whose medications for Covid-19 have received approval from the related Health Authorities to be used as food supplements.

The Ayurveda Department has also contributed significantly to the creation of herb based immunity boosters which have been used in many quarantine centres, hospitals and several official locations.”

“We are speaking of the collective indigenous national medical heritage and we have Sri Lankan Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani which has been enriched within the local sphere over thousands of years and we should be able to work collectively to use these expertise at this crucial time.”

Asked if clinical trials can be facilitated to formally get recognition for the several Sinhala wedakam practitioners who say they have treated Covid-19 patients, he stated that this could be done.

Many segments of the popula such as monks Bhikkhus, intellectuals and artistes are rallying towards supporting the government to be able to use the skills of the traditional physicians of the country to prevent the Covid-19 crisis from escalating.

Traditional physicians

“We believe that traditional physicians of this country are able to comprehend with 100 percent accuracy the immunity issues which constitute the core problem of this pandemic,” Said Ven. Watinapaha Somananda Thera.

“The Western nations and their medical system do not have any other way or handling this crisis except with a vaccine.

We, therefore, ask the authorities to formally enable the use of the skills of the indigenous medical practitioners for the safeguarding of all human lives in this country and thereby preventing the economic destruction we are seeing now.

It is the village Wedamahattaya who was the guardian of the health of the village and we must not forget this,” the Ven. Watinapaha Somananda Thera said.

Asked if he is mainly supporting only a specific traditional physician or speaks for all the traditional physicians of the land as a whole he asserted that although he is personally aware of the skills of a young physician; Amila Sanjeewa of Gampaha who has provided his Covid-19 prevention and curative medications to institutions such as prisons based on a specific wattoruwa, that he stands for all of the traditional physicians of the country.

Admitting that many traditional physicians do not appear on social media as physician Amila Sanjeewa constantly does, he said that it is important for the thousands of veteran indigenous Medical Physicians to be incorporated in the national struggle for finding a solution for the pandemic situation.

“We know that these physicians have followed the Coronavirus issue from the very beginning and referred to our ancient knowledge and created the needed medications.

Indigenous knowledge

It is up to the officials concerned to give them formal recognition. These persons include traditional medicine Physician Amila Sanjeewa of Gampaha and many others”.“This pandemic has shown us that we need to re-create the nation we were with regard to our connection with our indigenous knowledge pertaining to health, food/herbs, agrarian practices, and our ancient medical heritage.

It is the temple that anyone who was sick in the village would come to in search of herbs needed. Every mother was as good as a physician. We had the Athbeheth and Kemkrama tradition. We need to revive this knowledge. Today we hardly recognise our medicinal,” the Ven. Thera said but acknowledged that he is not connected to any wedaparamparawa or is a trained Physician.

“I belong to a generation where basic knowledge of traditional medicine of the land – Sinhala Wedakama was basic common sense. This medical tradition was for all Lankans. We will now be working on enabling Buddhist temples, Catholic churches, Mosques and Kovils to inculcate practices such as cultivating herbs and where each place of worship can be a centre point of indigenous medicine.

Sri Lankan Ayurveda/Sinhala Wedakama, Unani and Siddha medical traditions all exist within Sri Lanka,” the Ven. Thera said.

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