Hyderabad India social distancing
A policeman tries to disburse people who gathered without maintaining social distancing in Hyderabad during the nationwide lockdown earlier week. The herd immunity among the huge population, doctors hope, can slow down the coronavirus pandemic. Image Credit: ANI

Dubai: A New Delhi-based Indian doctor says that a simple ‘preventive diet’ to boost the immunity against flu, along with the possibility of the herd immunity already kicking in - may work for the second-most populous country in the world in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury – a medical nutritionist whose crash diet plans to reverse diabetes recently became hugely popular via youtube videos – has provided some food for thought at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to it’s knees.

Speaking to Gulf News during an exclusive interview, Dr Roy Chowdhury said that in the absence of a vaccine, it’s the ‘’ treatment and not the disease’’ which is taking more lives around the world. ‘’Check the WHO protocol and you will see it’s a combination of anti-malarial, antibiotics, anti-pyretic and even in cases a HIV drug. Why do you need antibiotics to treat what is essentially a viral fever? Even the dosage of anti-pyretic is also extremely high and it can often turn out to be a lethal combination,’’ he said.

Check the WHO protocol and you will see it’s a combination of anti-malarial, antibiotics, anti-pyretic and even in cases a HIV drug. Why do you need antibiotics to treat what is essentially a viral fever? Even the dosage of anti-pyretic is also extremely high and it can often turn out to be a lethal combination

- Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury

What would be his advice for the people of India, where the cases have crossed 5000 within a span of a month and the Central government is mulling an extension of the nationwide lockdown? ‘’We don’t know if the cases have started to develop in India in March or actually before that, say six months. The figures are coming out now because of the tests – but please remember most of tests started at the airports. It would have been interesting to find the outcome if tests were also conducted at rural India.

‘’The point I am trying to make here is the coronavirus – whose antecedents lay in the SARS or MERS almost 10 years back – could have come back some six months back but we didn’t know till the ultra-conservative Chinese media brought it before us. Infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria or flu does kill about 350,000 people in India annually – and flu does kill. However, there is no guarantee that all the deaths happening in India or the world at this point are due to coronavirus,’’ Dr Roy Chowdhury argued.

Elaborating on his case, he says the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test which is performed on suspect cases is also not a full-proof examination to determine the nature of the virus. ‘’Discovered by Kary Banks Mullis, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, the test aims to do a genetic evaluation of the virus and not determine the coronavirus. It was originally meant for research work and not diagnostic purposes and can often show false positives,’’ he stuck his neck out.

ALSO READ

Building on his alternative treatment theory, Dr Roy Chowdhury prescribes India to fight the flu by systematically taking .2 grams of Vitamin C daily. ‘’You can look at the following options – one guava, two oranges, three mangoes, four tomatoes or a handful of peas. Avoid animal protein, including dairy products – this should guard you at least 80% against chances of a flu,’’ he said.

On the much-discussed herd immunity, he says: ‘’Yes, it’s the only option for us and it’s really a Herculean task to reach out to such a huge population for tests. The combination of community immunity – and personal immunity – may have already started working in India.’’

Considered as somewhat an ‘outsider’ in the medical circles of India for his radical approach, did he ever think of approaching the Union health ministry with his ideas – especially when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also reached out to practitioners of alternative medicine like Auyrveda? ‘’Yes, the Prime Minister had been listening to them but I don’t think the country can afford to go against the WHO protocol. If the government had wanted, they could have approached the national institute of Ayurveda in the capital itself, but they have not,’’ he added.

Who is Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury?

Born: July 23,1973

Education: Post graduation in Diabetes education, International Diabetes Federation, Belgium; Doctorate in Diabetes.

Developed a three-step protocol called “The DIP Diet” to reverse diabetes in 72 hours, runs his centers in India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Switzerland.

Author several books on alternative treatment for cure of diabetes (both Type I & II).