Pragmatic Plan | Course Paper

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Short Communication

COVID-19 pandemic: A pragmatic plan for ayurveda intervention

Sanjeev Rastogi

a

,

*

, Deep Narayan Pandey

b

, Ram Harsh Singh

c

a

Dept of Kaya Chikitsa, State Ayurvedic College and Hospital, Lucknow, 226003, India

b

Department of Environment/Forests, Government of Rajasthan, Secretariat, Jaipur, 302005, Rajasthan, India

c

Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

article info

Article history:

Received 30 March 2020

Received in revised form

16 April 2020

Accepted 18 April 2020

Available online xxx

Keywords:

COVID-19

Pandemic

SARS-CoV-2

Traditional Medicine

Ayurveda

TCM

abstract

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 suc-

cessfully. 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. Notwith-

standing 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.

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/).

disease 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 being done world-

wide. Similar strategy is required to be implemented by Ayurveda

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine

journal homepage: http://elsevier.com/locate/jaim

Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine xxx (xxxx) xxx