ADVISORY ON BIRD FLU

Richard Moskowitz, M. D.

The possibility of a global pandemic of avian influenza depends on the convergence of several interrelated factors:

  1)   the appearance of virulent strains in Asian domestic fowl (chickens, ducks, and geese), with occasional spread to their human handlers, coupled with a high case fatality rate, approaching 50% in some areas; 

  2)   its rapid transmission across Eurasia by migratory birds; 

  3)  the proven ability of influenza viruses to produce mutant strains capable of human-to-human 

        transmission, which has produced global epidemics in the past;

  4)   their short incubation period (2-3 days at most, which spreads them more rapidly than large-scale preventive measures can easily keep up with;

  5)   the limited effectiveness of standard anti-viral drugs against them;

  6)  the triple necessity of developing a new vaccine yearly, with enough specificity to be effective; of 

        producing it in sufficient quantity for large populations; and of distributing it in time to do any 

        good; and

  7)   the lack of adequate hospital beds, trained personnel, and outpatient facilities to administer prophylaxis and treat severe cases on a global scale.

In response to this important but still largely hypothetical threat, I offer the following Advisory.  It is in no sense a plea or recommendation to choose homeopathic treatment in lieu of standard public health measures or effective vaccines if and when they become available.  It is intended solely to inform the public and the medical community about a simple method for the prevention and treatment of epidemic influenza that they may not be aware of, that is safe and inexpensive, and that has repeatedly proved its worth in the past.  It calls for a modest three-tiered strategy that is well within the capability of any region or locality acting on its own, without any need for Federal assistance or the quota of unwanted surveillance and red tape that usually come with it.  It is also directly applicable to threats of bioterrorism and other epidemic diseases as well. 

Level 1.  Prevention in Advance of the Outbreak.

            The first level is prevention in advance of the outbreak, or in its earliest stages, when the first documented or reported cases appear in the vicinity.  If the specific vaccine is not yet available in sufficient quantity, either of two homeopathic medicines may offer a good measure of protection for a period of weeks and months, and may be taken with perfect safety by anyone.  The first is Influenzinum, the homeopathic “nosode” or remedy prepared from the virus itself, and may be taken in the 30C or 30th centesimal dilution, somewhat as follows: 3 doses within a 24-hour period (waking, bedtime, waking), repeated weekly until the outbreak passes.  Although the mutability of the virus limits the effectiveness of specific vaccines prepared from any previous strain, this homeopathic nosode made from the deadly 1918 virus has had an excellent track record in the regular annual epidemics since then.

For bird flu in particular, an equally good choice would be the homeopathic medicine prepared from duck heart and liver, because ducks are one of the main reservoirs of the most virulent strains, and the remedy has less to do with the microbiology of the virus than the reaction of its animal host to it.  It is available OTC from several different manufacturers, under a variety of trade names, such as Oscillococcinum (Boiron Labs), and may be taken in the 200C dilution, on roughly the same schedule as the nosode.  It too has proven highly effective in preventing influenza if begun at or before the time of exposure, and also works quite well for incipient cases if given early enough.

 Level 2.  Preventive Treatment in the Early Stages of Illness.

            Once the disease has broken out in the vicinity, homeopathic physicians are trained to examine each case individually and prescribe the one medicine that corresponds most closely to the unique symptom-picture of the patient as a whole.  In an epidemic, where the illness tends to look quite similar in most people, after 15 or 20 cases are treated in this individualized manner, one medicine will emerge as having been extremely beneficial to about 75% of the cases, not only in alleviating the intensity of the symptoms, but also in speeding the recovery, and thus shortening the course of the disease.  Gelsemium sempervirens, the yellow jasmine, Bryonia alba, the white bryony, and Eupatorium perfoliatum, or boneset, have all been used successfully in this capacity for different outbreaks in the past, but the list of possibilities is much longer.  Known as the genus epidemicus, the one most suitable becomes the almost-specific remedy for the outbreak as a whole, and may be given out prophylactically to everyone at the time of exposure, or beforehand, when the disease is nearby.  It will also do great service in treating early or incipient cases.

Level 3.  Individualized Treatment of Advanced or Complicated Cases.

For the remaining 25% or so of the cases, who do not simply “receive” and copy the standard picture, and thus do not respond to the genus epidemicus, but go on to develop a more elaborate and sometimes more intense pattern of their own, other equally beneficial medicines will be identifiable by a trained homeopath, based on further individualization of the total symptom-picture, as above.  Some of the most severe or complicated cases may of course require hospitalization and conventional treatment as well.

Long experience with epidemics of smallpox, cholera, scarlet fever, typhus, and other such diseases at a time when vaccines and antibiotics were not yet available has shown this simple method to be highly effective in mitigating their severity and duration, both by treating the people who are already sick, and by preventing their spread to and lessening their impact on others in their path.  It is inexpensive and totally safe, involving the use of simple home remedies that are available to anyone without a prescription, thus allowing the physician to focus on the more advanced and complicated cases.  As part of the overall public health strategy, the homeopathic approach could be of great benefit, especially where and when conventional vaccines and medications are ineffective or unavailable.

 

                                                                                                                               Spring 2006