(Continued from last week)
Today we are confronted with another deadly killer epidemic looming in the horizon as a result of bio terrorism: Anthrax. There are many powerful homoeopathic remedies to prevent and counteract Anthrax in all its three forms. Each remedy for the patient has to be individualized depending on the totality of the symptoms of each form of the Anthrax viz; Cutaneous, Inhalation or Gastrointestinal. As a preventive, a nosode made of the bacillus itself known as ‘Anthrauinum’ is available worldwide. The nosode is made out of the bacterium inner by serial dilation or potentisation to feed the antigenic effects to the human organism so that the respective antibodies can be created to overcome the entry of the real germ. Nosodes are made by the dilation beyond the average limits of the 12th centrisimle potency where there are no particles of the original bacterial substance presence and there is no danger of causing the disease or any side effects, unlike allopathic vaccinations which do not have infrequent complications including deadly side effects. In 110 Medicina Alternativa, international scientists have been instructed to be ready and alert for a possible world wide epidemic of bio terrorism not only Anthrax but with the other communicable diseases which may be spread as an act of war. Homeopathy, Acupuncture and many other traditional state-of-the art methodologies of complementary medicine are now being brought out by these scientists to face this onslaught on the human race by an unscrupulous hierarchy.

In the coming weeks, Medicina Alternativa doctors from 110 countries will meet at the BMICH from 27th to 30 November and discuss how to create an unified strategy to be in readiness to overcome bio terrorism means with alternative medicine.

 By Dr Lohitha Samarawickrema
MBBS, MD, MRCP, DrAc, FFHom, FILA
Consultant Physician
CHAIRMAN MEDICOM

CHILDREN

It has been recommended that ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones should not be used in children younger than 16 to 18 years because of a link to permanent arthro-pathy (joint disease) in adolescent animals and transient arthro-pathy in a small number of children. However, balancing these risks against the risks of anthrax cause by an engineered antibiotic-resistant strain, the working groups recommend that ciprofloxacin be used in the paediatric population for initial therapy or post exposure prophylaxis following an anthrax attack. If antibiotic susceptibility testing allows, penicillin should be substituted for the fluoroquinolone.

As a third alternative, doxycycline could be used. The American Academy of Paediatrics has recommended that doxycycline not be used in children younger than 9 years because the drug has resulted in retarded skeletal growth in infants and discoloured teeth in infants and children. However, the serious risk of infection following an anthrax attack supports the consensus recommendation that doxycycline be used in children if antibiotic susceptibility testing, exhaustion of drug supplies or allergic reaction preclude use of penicillin and ciprofloxacin.

PREGNANT WOMEN

Fluoroquinolones are not generally recommended during pregnancy because of their known association with arthro-pathy in adolescent animals and small numbers of children. Animal studies have discovered no evidence of teratogenicity related to ciprofloxacin, but no controlled studies of ciprofloxacin in pregnant women have been conducted. Balancing these possible risks against the concerns of anthrax due to engineered antibiotic-resistant strains it recommends that ciprofloxacin be used in pregnant women for therapy and post exposure prophylaxis following an anthrax attack. However, penicillin for the treatment of syphilis during pregnancy and amoxicillin as a treatment alternative for chlamydial infections during pregnancy are recommended.

Ciprofloxacin (and other fluoroquinolones), penicillin and doxycycline (and other tetracyclines) are each excreted in breast milk. Therefore, a breast-feeding woman should be treated or given prophylaxis with the same antibiotic as her infant based on what is most safe and effective for the infant to minimize risk to the infant.

INFECTION CONTROL

There are no data to suggest patient-to-patient transmission of anthrax occur. Thus, standard barrier isolation precautions are recommended for hospitalised patients with all forms of anthrax infection, but the use of high-efficiency particulate air filter masks or other measures for airborne protection are not indicated. There is no need to immunize or provide prophylaxis to patient contacts (e.g.. Household contacts, friends, co-workers) unless a determination is made that they, like the patient, were exposed to the aerosol at the time of the attack.

Proper burial or cremation of humans and animals that have died because of anthrax infection is important in preventing further transmission of the disease. Serious consideration should be given to cremation. Embalming of bodies could be associated with special risks. If autopsies are performed, all related instruments and materials should be autoclaved or incinerated. Animal transmission might occur if infected animal remains are not cremated or buried.

DECONTAMINATION

Recommendations regarding decontamination in the event of an intentional aerosolization of anthrax spores are based on evidence concerning aerosolization, anthrax spore survival and environmental exposures at Sverdlovsk and among goat hair mill workers. The greatest risk to human health following an intentional aerosolization of anthrax spores occurs during the period in which anthrax spores remain airborne, called primary aerosolization. The duration for which spores remain airborne and the distance the spores travel before they become non-infectious or fall to the ground is dependent on meteorological conditions and aero biological properties of the dispersed aerosol. Under circumstances of maximum survival and persistence, the aerosol would be fully dispersed within hours to 1 day at most, well before the first symptomatic cases would be seen. Following the discovery that a bio weapon has been used, anthrax spores may be detected on environmental surfaces using rapid assay kits or culture, but they provide no indication as to the risk of re-aerosolization.

Much has been written about the technical difficulty of decontaminating an environment contaminated with anthrax spores. A classic case is the experience at Gruinard Island in the United Kingdom. During World War II, British military undertook explosives testing with anthrax spores on this island off the Scottish coast. Spores persisted and remained viable for 36 years following the conclusion of testing. Decontamination of the island occurred in stages, beginning in 1979 and ending in 1987, when the island was finally declared fully decontaminated. The total cost is unpublished, but materials required included 280 tons of formaldehyde and 2000 tons of seawater.

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH

To develop a maximally effective response to a bio terrorist incident involving anthrax, the medical community will require new knowledge of the organism, its genetics and pathogenesis, improved rapid diagnostic techniques, improved prophylactic and therapeutic regimens and an improved second-generation vaccine. A recently published Russian study indicates that genes transferred from the related B cereus can act to enable B anthracis to evade the protective effect of the live attenuated Russian vaccine in a rodent model. Research is needed to determine the role of these genes with respect to virulence and ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity. Furthermore, the relevance of this finding for the US vaccine needs to be established. An accelerated vaccine development effort is needed to allow the manufacture of an improved second-generation product that requires fewer doses. Finally, an expanded knowledge base is needed regarding possible maximum incubation times after inhalation of spore-containing aerosols and optimal post exposure antibiotic regimens.

ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF CURE

There are methods in alternative medicine, which have been used to overcome infective diseases before the days of antibiotics or immunization. For example, there were methods used in ancient China by traditional Chinese physicians and by the ayurvedic physicians in India from Pre-Christian times to overcome deadly epidemics. Smallpox was the most feared epidemic illness, which decimated millions in one epidemic in those times. The ancient Chinese traditional physician took the scab of the smallpox, dried pustule, sun dried it, ground it with saffron powder (to attenuate the virus) and in times of epidemic, using a small thin bamboo blew it into the nose of people as a preventive measure. The ancient ayurvedic physicians made a similar vaccination with sun dried pilules of the smallpox scabs, mixed with bee’s honey, ginger and fine spices. These globules were ingested as preventive. Edward Jennes serendipitous discovery in the west of the Cardinal principles of the immunization of this kind. This information provided to him by a dairymaid in the 19th century in England, formed the basis modern science of immunization.

Christian Samuel Fedrik Hannaman (born 1755) using the principle of similars established a very effective method of immunization against the deadly epidemic disorders, particularly for rabies, cholera, anthrax, scarlet fever and all the deadly childhood communicable diseases which were rife in his time. For instance, in a cholera epidemic sweeping through London - the Hanamanian homeopathic method was not only to prevent cholera but also to cure the vast majority of patients who got this devastating disease. The majorities who were treated in allopathy died.

EPIDEMICS

Margery Blackie records of a severe cholera epidemic in London in 1854, during which the facilities of The London Homoeopathic Hospital were turned over completely to the treatment of cholera victims. Although the treatment of these patients was reportedly spectacularly successful, the British Medical Council failed to report the results of the Homoeopathic Hospital’s treatment in their Blue Book of Statistics. When the omission was brought up in the British Parliament, a separate Blue was issued later to report the full figures. As compared with a death rate in other hospitals of 51.8 percent, the London Homoeopathic Hospital’s death rate was only 16.4 percent in the cholera cases.

A survey was carried out in United Kingdom factories and offices, comparing the results of allopathic and homoeopathic treatment of influenza between 1968 and 1970. The purpose of the survey was to determine the effectiveness of the homoeopathic nosode influenzinum, prepared from the influenza virus current at that time. Patients of allopathic physicians did not receive the homoeopathic nosode and 19.7 percent of them contracted the flu; among the homoeopathically immunized patients, only 6.5 percent came down with the disease. Furthermore, the number of working days lost by allopathic patients was nearly eight and a half times greater than those lost by homoeopathic patients. Which indicates that homoeopathic patients who did become ill recovered considerably more rapidly than did the allopathic patients, owing to the partial immunity conferred on them by the nosode.
Concluded