Boost immune system to fight corona: Prof Hegde
Wednesday, 01 April 2020 | Kumar Chellappan | KOCHI
While the whole world is worried over the havoc being caused by COVID 19 virus and the disease by name corona, there is an Indian medical doctor who had prophesied about this disease way back in 2006. Prof B M Hegde, a leading cardiologist and former chancellor of Manipal University had written that a disease like this would strike the world with vengeance and claim millions of lives.
Prof Hegde had warned about this medical phenomenon in his path-breaking book “What Doctors Don’t Get to Study in Medical School” which he authored in 2006 and was published with a foreword by Rustum Roy, renowned scientist.
Speaking to The Pioneer over telephone from Mangalore on Tuesday, Prof Hegde pointed out that the world is yet to find out a cure for influenza (the common cold) and the solution lies in the Indian system of knowledge. “The best solution to fight corona is to strengthen our immune system. Our immune system will function at its best when we are happy. Fear weakens the immune system. Ignorance is the root cause of fear. So let us not worry about this enigma ,” he said.
He wrote in the 2006 book that the variants of influenza have symptoms of runny nose, headache of varying severity, body aches and pains, high fever, with or without pneumonia presenting as cough and breathlessness with scanty sputum. “In severe cases signs of respiratory failure set in rapidly and might end up with bleeding and disseminated intravascular coagulation and multi-organ failure. Bleeding is more common in those with gastric type of flu. Those who present with gastric flu will have severe loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting and even bleeding per rectum and occasionally hematemesis,” wrote Prof Hegde. (Page 387)
Dr B Madhu, one of the leading physicians in Kerala, said that these are the true symptoms of Corona virus infected persons. But what shocked even a seasoned physician like Dr Madhu was the prophesy made by Prof Hegde in the next paragraphs in which he has given an account of his encounter with the 1968 influenza pandemic in Britain. “In the last 400 years , there were 12 pandemics, roughly three per century. We had three in the last century. Spanish flu of 1918where there were a total of 640 million clinical attacks, 50 per cent of the then population of 1.2 billion with 12.5 per cent case fatality ratio with 80 million dead,” wrote Prof Hegde. Comparing the present (2006) with the previous pandemics caused by different variants, he had warned that if the past trends persist in 2006, ‘we should expect total deaths of 2-3 billion what with the population now at 6.6 billion’. But what he wrote next has shaken the world now. In 2006 itself he had scientifically prophesized that the next pandemic could throw all our systems out of gear. “The worst would be that all our hospitals , put together will not be able to cater to even 10 per cent of patients. This virus spreads even without contact with patients. Their coughing into the air will disseminate the virus in the atmosphere. Touching a patient, his clothes, or even shaking hands and staying in the vicinity could all spread the disease. Door knobs and counter tops can harbor the virus for days. Medical care workers are at great risk, Crowding and slum swelling could increase the incidence and case fatality. Society will have to take the responsibility of looking after the sick in the eventuality of hospitals getting clogged,” wrote Prof Hegde.
Almost 15 years later, Prof Hegde is cynical about the search for a vaccine by medical researchers. “They toiled hard from 1949 to 1999 in the Cold Research Laboratory in London for a vaccine to counter our common cold and spent billions of pound sterling. Their biggest contribution was that they told the world that they couldn’t find out a medicine for common cold and hence they were winding up the research. But they told the world that the Indian wisdom of eating spices when you have cold is the best result that can happen.
A research by Harvard Medical school has shown that fresh ginger, garlic, pepper, onion and a combination of honey are the most anti-viral agent known to mankind,” said Prof Hegde while speaking about the claims and counter claims by corona researchers
Dr Madhu is of the view that the findings by Prof Hegde is the result of a kind of sixth sense developed by one’s deep insight into the world of medical science.
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/india/boost-immune-system-to-fight-corona--prof-hegde.html
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