Varanasi, May 7 (IANS): The 'Mahamana Declaration', being drafted by a nine-member working group in the Banaras Hindu university (BHU) will help in strengthening the battle against Coronavirus.
The Mahamana Declaration is based on the inputs from a webinar, held recently, on indigenous alternative medicine systems in India like Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).
'Mahamana' is the name given to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya who set up the Banaras Hindu University.
Chairman of the committee and dean of the faculty of Ayurveda, Prof Yamini Bhushan Tripathi, said that the implementation of the 'Mahamana Declarations' will be ensured within the next 12 months.
The six-day webinar was held last week by faculty of Ayurveda, IMS BHU, in association with the Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation (PSAIIF), Quality Council of India (QCI) and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
Prof Tripathi said that a special attention is needed on the accessibility of indigenous alternative medicine systems AYUSH to lessen morbidity and mortality across the world. The declarations also took note of policy and legal issues, such as the action plan for promotion and communication strategy for global partnership to provide credible options other than modern medicine.
According to Prof Tripathi, the main points of the declarations include basic issues like at least 5 per cent of the GDP should be invested into healthcare and substantial amount in preventive care by linking all the primary healthcare centres with AYUSH.
The ministry of health and family welfare and ministry of AYUSH (MoA) should jointly examine, revise and update specifications of plant materials, finished products and packaging materials regularly.
Clinical trials and experimental studies of Ayurveda medicines, procedures and recommendations should also be speeded up.
All AYUSH practitioners, nurses and other paramedics should sharpen their clinical skills, and treatment guidelines.
"We should involve all AYUSH doctors, nurses and paramedics working under all situations of health care. We also need to develop Ayurvedic/AYUSH protocol for treatment," he said.
He said that all existing helplines for farmers and citizens should be integrated with the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB) to help cultivation of medicinal plants.
It is also recommended to establish a Centre of Excellence in the form of National Institute of Ayurvedic Education and Research (NIEAR) at faculty of Ayurveda at BHU.