COVID-19 pandemic: A pragmatic plan for ayurveda intervention

World community is facing an unprecedented pandemic of novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease has spread globally with more than 1.43 million confirmed cases and 82,100 deaths as of April 8, 2020. Despite worldwide efforts to contain it, the pandemic is continuing to spread for want of a clinically-proven prophylaxis and therapeutic strategy. The dimensions of pandemic require an urgent harnessing of all knowledge systems available globally. Utilization of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Wuhan to treat COVID-19 cases sets the example demonstrating that traditional health care can contribute to treatment of these patients successfully. Drawing on the Ayurveda classics, contemporary scientific studies, and experiential knowledge on similar clinical settings, here we propose a pragmatic plan for intervention in India. We provide a plan for graded response, depending on the stage of infection among individuals, in a population. Notwithstanding the fact that no system of medicine has any evidence-based treatment for COVID-19 as yet, clinical interventions are required to be put in place. Therefore, pragmatic strategy proposed here for Ayurveda system of medicine requires immediate implementation. It will facilitate learning, generate evidence and shall be a way forward. (c) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institute of Transdisciplinary Health Sciences and Technology and World Ayurveda Foundation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The world is facing an unprecedented pandemic of COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus. Despite efforts to contain it, the pandemic continues to spread. This article proposes a pragmatic plan for intervention in India, drawing on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, in order to address the lack of clinically-proven prophylaxis and therapeutic strategy. The plan provides graded response measures based on the stage of infection. While there is currently no evidence-based treatment for COVID-19, clinical interventions are necessary. Immediate implementation of the proposed Ayurveda strategy will facilitate learning and generate evidence.