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Brief Communication Preparedness of Siddha system of medicine in practitioner perspective during a pandemic outbreak with special reference to COVID-19 S. Rajalakshmi1*, K. Samraj2, P. Sathiyarajeswaran3, K. Kanagavalli4 1*, 2Research Associate, Siddha Clinical Research Unit (SCRU), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India, 3Director, Siddha Central Research Institute (SCRI), Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, 4Director General, Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS), Chennai, Tamilnadu, India ABSTRACT COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-2019) is an infectious respiratory disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus-2). This new viral disease was unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As of November 16th 2020, it affects about 54.3 million populations, death troll increased to 1.32 million cases in worldwide. Whereas in India 8.85 cases are infected with COVID-19, of which 1, 30, 112 cases were died. Till now there has been no specific anti-virus drug or vaccines are available for the treatment of this disease, the supportive care and non-specific treatment to the symptoms of the patient are the only options in Biomedicine, the entire world turns its attention towards alternative medicine or Traditional medicine. Siddha medicine is one of the primordial systems of medicine practiced in the southern part of India, it dealt a lot about pandemic, and its management. This review provides an insight into Pandemic in Siddha system and its management in both ancient history and modern history, National and state level Government policies related to current pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on usage of unproven drug during infectious disease outbreak, Preparedness of Siddha system during a pandemic outbreak Challenges and Recommendations. Keywords Herbal medicine, Alternative medicine, Traditional medicine, Quarantine, Isolation, Corona virus 1. INTRODUCTION Smallpox 1618-1619 Smallpox 1770 A pandemic is a disease outbreak that spreads across countries Smallpox 1780-1782 & 1837-1838 1st Cholera Pandemic 1816–1826 or continents, affects more people and takes more lives than an nd epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed 2 Cholera Pandemic 1829–1851 3rd Cholera Pandemic 1852–1860 COVID-19 to be a pandemic when the illness was become 4th Cholera Pandemic 1863–1875 severe and spreading quickly over a wide area (Web MD, n.d.). An Outbreak of Cholera 1866 Human population has suffered from many pandemics 5th Cholera Pandemic 1881–1896 throughout history like smallpox, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, 6th Cholera Pandemic 1899–1923 H1N1. It has created terrible damage in many different forms. 7th Cholera Pandemic 1962–66 The following table shows a list of pandemic events occurred Russian Flu 1889-1890 Worldwide (Samal J, 2014) (Table 1). Spanish Flue 1918-1919 Asian Flue 1957-1958 Hong Kong Flue 1968-1969 Table 1. Pandemic Events Occurred Worldwide H1N1 2009 Name of the pandemic Year of the event Plague of Athens (Typhoid Fever) 430 BC Antonine Plague (Small pox) 165-180 2020 is a year of pandemic, the whole world suffers from a Plague of Cyprian 252-256 pandemic disease called COVID-19, and it was started in Plague of Justinian (Bubonic Plague) 541-750 Wuhan city, china, in December 2019. It has emerged as an th Black Death 14 Century outbreak of unexplained pneumonia, later on Feb 2020, the th Third Pandemic (Plague) 19 Century World Health Organization (WHO) named this pneumonia Smallpox 1518 disease as Corona virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). This novel Smallpox 1520 corona virus disease shows symptoms such as fever, fatigue, dyspnea, myalgia, severe cough, diarrhea etc. This disease *Correspondence: S. Rajalakshmi M.D E-mail: [email protected] spreads through nasal discharge and salivary droplets. This Received Aug 12, 2020; Accepted Nov 4, 2020; Published Nov 30, 2020 infection is usually mild in Children and young adults, whereas doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5667/CellMed.2020.0029 in old people and those with co-morbidities like diabetes, blood © 2020 by CellMedOrthocellular Medicine Pharmaceutical Association pressure, cardiovascular diseases develop severe illness, even This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. death. Unfortunately specific antiviral drugs or vaccines are (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CellMed 2020 / Volume 10 / Issue 4 / e29 1 Preparedness of Siddha system of medicine in practitioner perspective during a pandemic outbreak with special reference to COVID-19 currently not available. The drugs used for COVID-19 in the entrance of the house to notify that ‘the person inside the management is categorized in four classes Antiviral, Anti house is infected’. In current COVID-19 pandemic, people in inflammatory drugs, Anti-malaria drugs, Traditional Medicine. home quarantine are noticed with a paper notice sticked at the The researches are going on in both Biomedicine and house entrance, in ancient days it was noticed with neem leaves Traditional medicine at both Clinical and Pre-clinical level, to and turmeric. prove its efficacy and safety. Hence, the lack of potential drug against COVID-19 in conventional medicine turns the world 2.2.2 House isolation attention towards traditional medicine in various countries like When a person is infected, the person is isolated from others, to China, Iran, India, etc. prevent others from infection. Siddha system of medicine is one of the primordial system of medicine, has its origin in southern part of India. Siddhars 2.2.3 Quarantine are spiritual scientist, who wrote many medicine preparations Quarantine is an evidence of ignorance. As soon as the true using herbs, metals, minerals and some animal products too. cause of any disease is recognized, attention is directed to its They have mentioned 32 types of internal and 32 types of prevention in the first instance rather than to its suppression external medicine not only for curative health, but also for after the disease has appeared. To control any disease by means preventive and promotive health. Siddhars have mentioned of quarantine we must restrain all infected individuals during 4455 diseases, definitions, types and its management, initially it their entire period of infection (Bagde S, Shukla P, Srivastava was written in palm leaf, later it is converted into printed books. RK, Mondal R &Anupam R., 2019). It was practiced especially This manuscript critically review the pandemic/ epidemic in small pox. mentioned in Siddha system, its management mentioned in Siddha system, previous pandemic/ epidemic management I. When the outbreak incidence starts, no persons are through Siddha system, and current pandemic (COVID-19) permitted to go outside and come inside the town. management through Siddha System. Even the visitors are not allowed to go to their home town. II. The infected person is isolated in a separate room 2. PANDEMIC OR INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN and lay down in neem leaves spread clean cloth. The SIDDHA SYSTEM (KOLLAI NOI/OTTU NOI) cloth and neem (Azadirachtaindica) leaves should be changed every day. Neem possess potent anti- In Siddha system of medicine, pandemic is termed as kollainoi. septic, anti-viral properties against different viruses It is defined as, the disease which occurs spontaneously, spread such as Coxsackie B virus, variola, Chikungunya, rapidly, affects abundant humans in a district or state or even dengue, polio, measles (Ruchta .T, Amit Kumar whole country. This may occur during climatic changes, from verma, Sandip Chakraborty, KuldeepDhama, February to May months. Another term used in Siddha system ShoorVir.S, 2014). for infectious diseases is Ottunoi. The diseases which are III. The isolated room is disinfected with turmeric water, caused by any germ are called as Ottunoi. Some important blockade with turmeric dipped cloth. Curcumin pandemic or infectious diseases, in Siddha are small pox isolated from curcuma long has Anti-viral, anti- (ammai) and Cholera (Vulinoi). microbial, anti-bacterial activity (Moghadamtousi SZ et al., 2014). 2.1. Siddha Mode of transmission of Infectious diseases IV. The family members who stayed with the infected (Ottunoi) person will not go to other houses, won’t share their things with others. 1. The disease will spread via infected person excretions such as respiratory droplets, sputum, 2.2.4 Disinfection urine, feces, etc. Neem leaves (Azadirachtaindica), turmeric water (Curcuma 2. It may also spread by touching the objects handled longa) and Cow dung can be used as a disinfectant. The floor of by an infected person. the house and streets are molded thoroughly with cow dung. Fumigation of sambirani (Styraxbenzoi), kungiliyam 2.1.2 Small pox (Ammainoi) (Shorearobusta) were also mentioned as disinfected. The disease which starts with fever, later causing blister in Cow dung has antiseptic, anti-radioactive and anti-thermal some parts of the body or all over the body is called as Small activities. The traditional fumigation with herbs such as garlic pox (Ammainoi). There are 14 types of small pox in Siddha (Allium sativum) peel, turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder, system. Carom (Trachyspermumammi) seeds and Loban (resin of Styraxbenzoin and Boswellia species) is effective in reducing 2.1.3 Cholera (VuliNoi) air-borne bacteria, disinfect inert surfaces and also improves Cholera is disease causing vomiting, diarrhoea, indigestion, the quality of air (Surajpasalwad, 2017). dehydration. It will occur as a pandemic between the month of August and October. The other name of the vulinoi is natpunoi, 2.3 Modern history of the epidemic or pandemic which indicates, it is an infectious and contagious disease. management through Siddha system of medicine Dengue infection is one of the rapid spreading mosquitos borne 2.2. Pandemic management in Siddha viral disease in the world which accounts for nearly 50 million In Siddha, the pandemic is managed with 4 steps (Durairasan. cases, annually (Sahanaa C, Mishra AK, Bazroy J, 2018). At ko, 1993) they are, the time of dengue epidemic 2012, the Tamil Nadu government distributed a Siddha herbal decoction, Nilavembu kudineer 2.2.1 Notification (NVK) at free of cost.