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Cow Urine, Herbal Remedies Gain as India Swine Flu Deaths Climb</b>
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By Saikat Chatterjee and Arush Chopra

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The rising death toll from swine flu in India is driving some people to buy remedies made of cow- urine extract, clarified butter and herbal potions to ward off the disease, as the government restricts Tamiflu and other drugs.

Since India reported its first swine flu death in the western city of Pune on Aug. 3, more than 100 people have died from the virus. The government is controlling access to Roche AG’s Tamiflu antiviral to ensure hospital supplies in case of an epidemic. Residents have switched to traditional Ayurvedic healing, used for hundreds of years to boost immunity, as well as unproven remedies being sold to take advantage of the outbreak, doctors say.

“Everybody wants to make money,” said Dr. Kalyan Banerjee, president of the Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science and former director of the National Institute of Virology. “The problem is basically of regulation. There is no system. Everybody can say what they want.”

The emergence of unproven treatments underscores the difficulty authorities face in controlling the new H1N1 virus in a country where health-care spending ranks among the bottom 50 worldwide. Sales of traditional medicine in the nation are about $1.6 billion annually and growing at as much as 12 percent a year, according to a study by the health ministry’s National Medicinal Plants Board.

The health ministry department that deals with traditional medicines on Aug. 21 advised citizens with severe flu-like symptoms to visit designated hospitals for testing and treatment with drugs such as Tamiflu. The department said people with mild or no symptoms can take traditional medicines to boost their immunity.

Mind and Body

Annual flu epidemics result in about 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

Ayurveda, or science of life, is a holistic treatment that seeks to align a person’s body, mind and emotions with the aim of preventing illness. Fliers and e-mails promoting herbs and other traditional remedies have circulated since the swine flu deaths prompted authorities in the hardest hit cities of Pune and Mumbai to shut schools, cinemas and malls.

“Ayurveda is effective against many diseases,” said Mohan Rao, professor at the Center of social Medicine and Community Health at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University. “At times of crisis, some people will try to do whatever they can to make quick money.”

Go-Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra, a Nagpur, western India-based not-for-profit organization that calls itself a researcher of medicine based on cow products, said potions containing extracts of cow urine can ward off the flu.

Dung Drug

“Our medicines are effective against chronic illnesses such as tuberculosis and blood pressure and will strengthen the immunity of a person,” said Gopal Vohra, a vaidya, or Ayurvedic doctor, at Go-Vigyan Kendra. He said Panchyagavvya Ghrut, a mixture that includes cow urine, dung, curd, milk and ghee are among treatments by the group that can prevent the flu.

Other groups such as the New Delhi-based Dhyan Foundation, which teaches yoga, is asking people to snort warm cow ghee, or clarified butter, and massage their feet with mustard oil to develop immunity against the flu strain.

“I have nothing against traditional medicine but I think before anything can be prescribed to a patient, there should be an adequate evidence to prove the claim,” Rahul Nagpal, head of the pediatrics department at Max Healthcare hospital in Saket, New Delhi, said by phone. Max Healthcare, a unit of Max India Ltd., runs a chain of eight hospitals and clinics in New Delhi and its suburbs.

State health ministers asked the federal government on Aug. 21 to ensure that unverified drugs aren’t sold.

Kerala Clinic

The number of patients seeking precautionary medicines has increased 15 percent to 20 percent within the past two to three weeks, said K. Anilkumar, an executive director at Kerala Ayurveda Ltd., which processes herbal medicines and operates Ayurvedic clinics. Sales at its stores have risen as much as 10 percent in the period, he said last month.

“Proper immunity has to be kept so that you do not catch the disease,” Mandip Kaur, a lecturer at Gujarat Ayurved University’s Institute for Post-Graduate teaching and research in Ayurveda, said by telephone. “In Ayurveda, we have many drugs which make your system strong.”

Before swine flu claimed its first victim in India, the nation’s Central Drug Standard Control Organization asked officials to ensure Tamiflu and its generic versions are only imported by the government.

Tamiflu Resistance

The drug was being sold at “very high” prices according to media reports, it said. Indiscriminate use of the antiviral may result in the virus developing resistance, making the fight against the disease tougher.

Common herbs such as tulsi, or holy basil, worshipped by Hindus and commonly grown in many homes, have been used in Ayurvedic treatments to fight ailments such as fever, cough and the common cold.

“I’m drinking tulsi juice since I heard a neighbor was suspected of getting swine flu,” said Manoj Gupta, a Delhi resident. “It’s natural to be a bit worried with all the media reports that are coming in about the flu. Hopefully, this will be able to protect me.”