A group of Siddha graduates and practising physicians from south India is planning to approach the Central Ayush Ministry demanding to prepare a uniform treatment guidelines for the Siddha system of treatment, which is reportedly losing its traditional sheen.

According to the Siddha, specific directive for each stage of treatment, including diagnosis and dispensing of medicines, is necessary to establish the veracity of curing diseases through Siddha therapy. A systematic and scientific form of approach should be the basic factor for application of medications and every step should be well documented for any time reference. Lack of strong uniform guidelines in the national level often underestimates the efficacy of this alternative medical system of this country.

“A uniform treatment directive will not only bring consistency in the application of therapy, but also reduce wastage of medicine, time and out of pocket expenses of the patients. Besides, there should be compulsory updating of the ways of disease management and the practitioners for new treatment protocols, which will enable them to be efficient in the field”, they said.

Their proposals include the demand for improving infrastructure facilities at the healthcare institutions. The siddhars put forward the idea that with a public-private partnership (PPP), government should establish high-tech integrative health centres at regional wise for special disease managements, mainly for AIDS, cancer, infertility, child care, women health, diabetes, respiratory disease, liver disease, and rheumatology.

Today some high efficacy promising drugs are not available in siddha dispensaries. Government should ensure the availability of these drugs which may support the effectiveness of Siddha medicines. For example, the siddhars pointed out that Maan kombu parpam (prepared from deer horn) for cardiac diseases, Mullelithailam (prepared from hedgehog) for bronchial asthma, Udumbunei (prepared from monitor lizard) for neurological diseases, Namathavalaiennai (prepared from green bull frog) for immunobooster in children suffering from primary complex, Perandaparpam (prepared from human skull) for schizophrenia, Oonaansudarthailam (prepared from Chameleon) for epilepsy, Karunkozhi drugs (prepared from Kadaknath black chicken) for hemiplegia, Chippinei (prepared from freshwater mussel) for gouty arthritis, Aamaioduparpam (prepared from turtle shell) for dysentery in children, Kabaadamaathirai (prepared from opium) for diarrhoea etc. are not available in Siddha dispensaries now.

They further said these products have been stopped due to ethical or legal reasons based on Wildlife Act and Narcotic Act. What we use now are just food species which is comparable to over-the-counter drugs. The high efficacy promising drugs should be supplied to Siddha wings, with which physicians can give assurance to patients, a Siddha practitioner commented.

On the side of research, they said the state government should allot money for research in Siddha drugs for epidemic and chronic diseases. Basic medical scientists/centers should be involved to carry out the research activities. Government should also think of establishing research wings in each Siddha Medical College by appointing original medical scientists who can manage the research work.