Is Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza Effective?

One of the leading causes of death in the USA is seasonal influenza and the complication of pneumonia attack the very young and the elderly. Most healthy people can fight off an infection with an average flu virus. Pandemics or world wide epidemics occur about every 50 years, according to the World Health Organization. During these outbreaks, the effects of influenza may affect any age group and the symptoms are often more severe. During the Spanish Flu in 1918, a mutated form of bird flu became highly contagious among humans and caused the deaths of millions of people. Symptoms appeared suddenly and included a bluish tint to the face and coughing up blood, death sometimes occurred in less than two days.

It is important to understand that homeopathic treatment is not the same as holistic healing, herbal treatments, traditional medicine or any other form of alternative and conventional medicine. Based upon the theories of Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the homeopathic treatment of influenza or any other disease involves finding a substance that would, in a healthy person, bring on the same symptoms that the sick man is experiencing and then diluting that substance in water, until chemically speaking, nothing remains but water.

Homeopaths believe that the water retains some essential property of the substance and that the more it is diluted. The more potent is the homeopathic remedy. None of this has any basis in scientific fact, but sometimes, when people believe in a treatment it can work. The question of whether or not it is safe, from a chemical standpoint, the only thing in the bottle is water, so it is as safe as drinking water.

Unlike other forms of traditional and alternative medicine which in many cases can be supported with clinical trials and chemical research, there is no way to scientifically test a homeopathic treatment of influenza. Tamiflu drug comes in a suspension form of the medicine and a capsule form of the medicine. The question of effectiveness can not be answered in a strictly medical sense. If a homeopathic treatment for influenza relieves or reduces symptoms in some people, then it is probably because the person has a strong belief in the system, not because of any medicinal properties associated with the water.

These are the facts about pandemics presented by the World Health Organization. The bird flu currently circulating in Asia, Europe and Africa is not highly contagious among humans. Those people who have died from the disease were either handling infected birds or were in close contact with a family member who was ill. The fear is related to the facts that viruses can change suddenly, called an antigenic shift. If the virus changed suddenly to a form that was transmitted easily among humans, in the same manner that seasonal flu is transmitted then a pandemic could occur quickly, because of air travel.

A limited number of antiviral drugs and vaccines are expected to be available if and when a pandemic occurs.

Some of the current antiviral drugs are ineffective in treating the bird flu in humans. A vaccine for bird flu has not been created at this time and will probably not be available until well after the mutation of the virus occurs, simply because scientists cannot create a mutation of the virus, they must wait until it changes and then collect samples.