With over twenty-four million COVID-19 cases already reported in India, a quarter-million fatalities thus far, and thousands of new fatalities being reported daily, panic is running rampant across the country. But India's medical doctors are warning that shortages in critical medical supplies have driven many Hindus to seek alternative 'cures' of doubtful validity. One of the most bizarre of these reputed cures involves people bathing themselves in cow dung, believing that it will save them from becoming infected.
Since cows are regarded as holy animals by Hindus, cow dung and urine have been used in Hindu healing rituals for centuries because of their supposed antiseptic and therapeutic properties. Since the pandemic began, however, cow shelters throughout India have been besieged by people wishing to douse themselves in excrement and having it washed off with milk, hoping that it will boost their immune systems and protect them from COVID. Many Hindu monasteries and schools actively promote cow-dung treatment, and news stories of people insisting that their treatment cured them of the virus remain popular.
But a news release by Dr. JA Jayalal, president of the Indian Medical Association, warns that the cow dung 'cure' is actually useless and may well worsen the pandemic since many people who are already infected often gather in groups with no attempt at social distancing or mask-wearing. "There is no concrete scientific evidence that cow dung or urine work to boost immunity against COVID-19," he said. "It is based entirely on belief. There are also health risks involved in smearing or consuming these products - other diseases can spread from the animal to humans." He lamented that many medical doctors also seek the treatment hoping that it would allow them to tend to patients without safety precautions.
Cow dung therapy is hardly the only alternative remedy people seek out to protect themselves from the pandemic. Medics in rural parts of Maharashtra state are also warning that patients are being brought to them with marks from hot irons held against their skin by witch doctors in an attempt to "drive the virus out."
With the pandemic showing no signs of easing and international health agencies warning that new COVID-19 variants are already being reported across India, the death toll, which already accounts for a third of all fatalities, will certainly drive the search for a miracle cure. So cow dung therapy will remain popular, at least for now.
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