Pyrogenium no dengue preventive medicine
Experts seek action against entity distributing drug in schools
A private organisation, Telangana Public Health Council, is conducting dengue fever awareness campaign in city schools in Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medak areas and giving preventive ‘pyrogenium’ to students. But medical authorities cautioned against this and said it was not a preventive medicine.
Doctors said it was only used in septic conditions and never as a preventive medicine. Ayush Commissioner Dr Rajender Reddy said government authorised council never distributed such medicines to the people and ‘pyrogenium’ was not a preventive medicine.
He requested citizens and city schools not to encourage such medicines and organisations, and said schools would be responsible if something goes wrong after consumption of such medicines. Parents who already gave the medicine said, they bought it paying `10 from the campaigners, thinking it was a government organisation.
Dr Reddy said, “We have only three councils in the country — Medical Council of India, Central Council for Homeopathy and Central Council for Indian Systems of Medicine, and these bodies never distribute medicines. They are the monitoring bodies and never come in the field and distribute medicines. Whoever is distributing such medicines are fake business bodies, they create such names so that people get deceived and nobody complaints about it.”
Pyrogenium is not a belladonna preventive medicine. “Moreover, belladonna is distributed in August and through government dispensaries and medical health officers and we are doing this for the last 10 years,’’ he added.
Ever since the medicine was introduced, the epidemic of belladonna has come down a lot. “Whenever there is an epidemic we have to study about it and the season and a drug is given to the particular area free of cost. We have not declared pyrogenium as a preventive medicine as of now and moreover there is no epedemic now. I appeal to parents and schools to not encourage consumption of such medicines,” Dr Reddy added.
Healthcare reforms doctors associations president, Dr K. Mahesh Kumar said, “The medicine they are giving is used for serious septic conditions and never used as preventive medicine. Public Health Council is not a government body. It’s some kind of an organisation fooling the public. May be they are using medicinal plants as preventive medicine to school children.’’
However, a member of the Telangana public health council said it only conducts awareness campaigns and distributes medicines only after permission from the district education officers. The council had been distributing medicines for many years.