Homœopathy has been getting a lot of good press lately. Internet sites referring to homœopathy have increased dramatically. There are currently in excess of ten million sites referring to homœopathy.
Early last year about half a million sites made reference to “homœopathy/homeopathy” and “flu”. At the height of the recent so called swine flu “pandemic” this number increased to over one and a half million. Interestingly, many sites quoted the success of homœopathy during the 1918-19 flu epidemic, where homœopathy’s success rate was spectacular and highlighted its benefits in epidemic diseases.
From the time of Samuel Hahnemann to the present day homœopathy has scored over conventional allopathic medicine in the treatment of epidemics. Examples are listed at the end.
Besides treating epidemics, homœopaths have used remedies successfully for over 200 years to prevent disease, often of epidemic proportions. It is called homœoprophylaxis. Samuel Hahnemann used it routinely in his practice. The first recorded example was in the 1799 scarlet fever epidemic where he used the homœopathic remedy Belladonna to successfully prevent the disease in his patients. Further examples are listed at the end.
However, homœopathy does have its critics. Certain people are becoming rattled by homœopathy’s success and must be feeling threatened if the measures being taken are anything to go by.
An upsurge in negative publicity has meant that while a few internet sites were disparaging in the early days we now see over 150,000 sites where “sceptics” are trying to put down homœopathy. These are people who invariably have never used homœopathy but set out to condemn it. However, they say “any publicity is good publicity”.
On the good news front the New Zealand Medical Journal recently published the results of a survey on the use of homœopathy in New Zealand. It was conducted in doctors’ waiting rooms; 65% of participants had used homœopathy, and 92% of these stated that homœopathy had helped them. The survey shows homœopathy is thriving in New Zealand. Hats off to the NZMJ for going ahead and publishing this survey.
A previous editorial stated that not one homœopathic remedy has ever been withdrawn from use in the 200 years homœopathy has been practised. Homœopathy has stood the test of time and is in a period of resurgence.
Monty Firmin
Examples of homœopathic treatment of disease in epidemics::
1813. The retreating army of Napoleon brought with it an epidemic of typhus. The mortality rate under conventional treatment was 30% while under homœopathic care the rate was 1%.
In the 1830-32 cholera epidemic, deaths under conventional treatment were between 40% and 80% depending on the information source. On the other hand, ten London homœopathic hospitals reported mortality at 9%, Bavaria reported a rate of 7% and the Imperial Russian Council reported 10% mortality under homœopathy.
1847. Typhoid fever outbreak in Ireland. The mortality rate for conventional care was 14%, for homœopathic care it was 2%.
1854. The London cholera epidemic had a mortality rate of 59% under conventional care, while under homœopathic care the rate was 17%.
In the 1850s there were several epidemics of yellow fever in the USA with reported conventional mortality rates of between 15% to 85%. Homœopaths reported rates between 5% to 7%.
1862-64. Diphtheria outbreak in USA. The mortality rate for conventional care was 84% while for homœopathic care it was 16%.
1878. Yellow fever in New Orleans. The mortality rate under conventional care was 50% while 2,000 cases treated homœopathically had 5.6% mortality.
1918-19. The Spanish flu outbreak was well documented in the USA, with medical records of hospitals across the country consistently showed a mortality rate above 28% for those treated conventionally, while those treated homœopathically had a rate of just over 1%.
1930s. During a smallpox epidemic in the USA, Dr W. L. Bonnell treated many patients who had smallpox without losing one, while the mortality rate was 20% in those treated conventionally.
Examples of homœopathy used to prevent disease:
1880s onwards. Dr H. C. Allen, USA, for 25 years gave a homœopathic remedy to hundreds of his patients during diphtheria outbreaks and did not record one case of diphtheria in those treated.
1902. Smallpox epidemic in USA. Homœoprophylaxis used on 2800 people with 14 cases of smallpox.
1910s-1950s. Dr A. H. Grimmer gave a homœopathic remedy to thousands who were exposed to poliomyelitis through many epidemics over a period of forty years. He studied some 30,000 treated patients during this period and not one patient developed polio.
1930s. Dr W. L. Bonnell, USA, protected 300 patients with a homœopathic remedy during an outbreak of smallpox and did not have one case of smallpox in those treated.
1935 onwards, Dr Dorothy Shepherd, England, gave a homœopathic remedy to hundreds of her young patients who had been in contact with a carrier during whooping cough outbreaks, and not one of these children developed the disease.
1957 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 40,000 people were given a homœopathic remedy during a poliomyelitis epidemic and not one of those treated developed polio.
In August 1974 in Brazil there was a severe epidemic of meningitis. Out of 18,000 children who were given a homœopathic remedy only 4 children got the disease.
1998. On the basis of the 1974 trial, the Brazilian government funded a larger study: 65,000 people were given a homœopathic remedy, and 4 suffered from meningococcal infection over the following 12 months.
2005. India had a Japanese encephalitis epidemic. Over 200,000 people were treated with a homœopathic remedy in the affected areas. On a one-to-one follow up of those treated, 3 people who had received the remedy contracted the disease.
2007-08. Cuba has a yearly leptospirosis epidemic. Despite a vaccination programme, thousands get the disease and many die each year. In 2007 and again in 2008 some 2.4 million people in the affected area were given a homœopathic remedy. The number of confirmed cases was below 10 in any month, and there were no deaths.