Abstract

COVID-19 PANDEMIC, UNANI MEDICINE AND IMMUNOMODULATION

Fatima Azmi* and Humaira Bano

Abstract

COVID-19 is a life-threatening infectious disease and has no existing cure or treatment. Recent studies are trying to understand how the immune system is reacting to fight the coronavirus. Unani medicine has rich literature regarding infection's invasion over the body, the causes of disease, curative measures, and treatment for epidemics/pandemic diseases, such as; acute catarrh and influenza pandemic. Unani scholars prescribed many drug formulations for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Most importantly, they recommend using Tiryaq Wabai (antidote), to evacuate the lethal matter out of the body. A literature review revealed the scientific study done on polyherbal formulation antidote (Tiryaq Wabai), presenting it as an immunomodulator for the elderly. Based on the literature review, the treatment and formulations for influenza pandemic (Nazla-Wabai/Nazla-Haar) could be adopted for coronavirus patients having mild to moderate symptoms, as a supportive treatment. In the article we list a large number of herbs that possess immunomodulatory activity, and we end the article with a list of ingredients and methods of preparation of some Unani drug formulation, which are used during pandemic diseases. There is a high possibility of having another pandemic after COVID-19. Therefore, there is a need to develop new effective infection control methods accessible to people. From our review, we suggest that proactive researches on Unani medicine can generate reliable indication regarding their role in disease prevention and health advancement.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Unani medicine, treatment, respiratory infection, medicinal herbs.