Prevention and Management of COVID-19 with Unani Medicine –A Review

Abstract

The world is observing a very strange time fighting an invisible enemy; the novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19). It is a declared global pandemic now. Initially it was observed in the Wuhan province of China, now fastly spreading around the world. The disease has spread globally with more than 8 million confirmed cases and 439,487 deaths as of June 17th, 2020. Human Coronavirus (HCoV) infection causes respiratory diseases with mild to severe outcomes. In the last 15 years, we have witnessed the emergence of two zoonotic, highly pathogenic HCoVs: Severe Acute Rspiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhoea and in case of serious illness develop difficulty in breathing. Research is underway to develop effective vaccines and medicines for the disease. But up to now no any effective management had not been declared. In such conditions, we present the measures described in Unani system of medicine for health protection during epidemics. Unani medicine is a traditional system of medicine developed during the middle ages, which employs natural drugs of herbal, animal and mineral origin for treatment. Traditional systems of medicine are being explored for providing preventive, supportive and rehabilitative care to patients in epidemic/pandemic but no direct evidence is available, some uncontrolled studies on traditional medicines suggest that they may have a direct efficacy on the virus. Unani Physicians emphasized in their classical Unani books under the chapter of influenza about pandemic (Nazla Wabai/ Nazla Haar) and epidemic diseases. The objective of this paper is to discuss in detail the Unani concept, management, treatment of epidemics in general and possible management of current Pandemics of COVID-19, its analysis in the light of ancient books in present scenario