Homeopathic doctors help in Liberia

Homeopathic doctors active in Liberia

24/11/2014

In mid-October, a four-member international medical team traveled to the West African country for three weeks. The mission to a hospital in Ganta, a town of about 40,000 on the border with Guinea, ended on schedule on 7 November. The mission was organized by the Homeopathic World Medical Association, the League Medicorum Homoeopathica Internationalis (LMHI), with the support of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians (DZVhÄ). The aim was to help the local doctors in the medical care of the population and, if possible, to help in the fight against the Ebola epidemic. The costs of the three-week stay were largely funded by donations from the homeopathic medical profession.

„We know that we were mainly invited to Liberia as well-trained doctors and that only secondarily our experience in homeopathy was in demand“, emphasizes Cornelia Bajic, first chair of the DZVhÄ. The physicians from India, USA, Switzerland and Germany were able to apply their expertise in different wards of the hospital, help patients and support the Liberian colleagues. The homeopathic treatment of Ebola patients should be performed and documented as part of the standard therapy prescribed by the WHO. „Our experience in treating other epidemics suggests that homeopathic treatment could significantly reduce the mortality rate of Ebola patients“, judges Bajic. The successful use of homeopathic remedies is documented, for example, in cholera, diphtheria or yellow fever.

In Ganta, patients were brought in by the LMHI medical team „some of the most serious illnesses, especially from the inflammatory form, children with typhoid fever, meningitis, pneumonia and unclear fever treated - each under the supervision of the local chief physician“, reports Ortrud Lindemann, who was also obstetric in Ganta worked. The specialist tells us after her return: „When we were in the hospital for 10 days, the success had spread and the patients were queuing up to be treated by us.“ The homeopathic doctors were thanked in a report by the Ganta Hospital for their commitment that it was helpful to the patients and beneficial to the staff of the hospital.

This first LMHI medical team was banned from having patients in the „Ebola Treatment Unit“ to treat. The decision was based on a statement from the WHO. A team of Cuban doctors waited in vain for his commitment. „It is about a threatening epidemic and a large number of seriously ill patients. And despite a glaring shortage of doctors in West Africa, political considerations seem to be more important than the treatment of these patients“, criticizes DZVhÄ chairman Bajic. Now a second team is to travel to Ganta to support the local doctors. (Pm)

Picture: Tim Reckmann