Fight Covid-19 with Professional Care

Katherine Sebastian Cunanan

In the Philippines, it was never a secret that most citizens usually go with faith healers instead of medical professionals due to lack of medical support from the health care system in the nation. The downside of this practice is that these healers typically recommends only herbals and massages to treat most illnesses and the CoronaVirus Disease 2019 (CoVid-19) did not get out of their sights, thus, resulting to numerous unproven healing rituals going on trend like the steam inhalation method.

Steam inhalation, locally known as tuob or suob, is traditionally used as home remedy for common colds and upper respiratory tract infection which are also considered as the first-hand symptoms of CoVid-19. However, the evidence base of the practice is still unsteady, with unproven theories that the steam loosens mucus, opens nasal passages, and reduces mucosal inflammation, or that the heat inhibits replication of viruses.

Although inhaling steamed water, with or without salt, has proven its effectivity in soothing the muscles thereby resulting to body relaxation, as well as its cumulative effect of sweating which causes in 30% reduction of toxins, there are still no studies that could confirm that this home remedy really kills the virus.

In fact, even other people claim its effectivity based on their experiences, local medical experts do not recommend steam inhalation for coronavirus because it could be the cause of the widespread of the virus if this was done on groups which exposes more people in acquiring the infection through aerosolization. Therefore, since there are a lot of people posting about this remedy online, the Department of Health (DOH) made a clear statement that the effects of steam inhalation against COVID-19 remain unproven.

Medical studies also cleared that it could be possible that inhaling steam can help alleviate some of the symptoms commonly associated with coughs and colds but it is important to note that alleviating the symptoms of a disease does not necessarily mean that it is curing the disease.

Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) specifically confirmed in its COVID-19 page that there is no evidence that regularly doing this steam inhalation has protected people from coronavirus infection.

“While some traditional or home remedies may provide comfort and alleviate symptoms of COVID-19, there is no evidence that current medicine can prevent or cure the disease. Self-medication with any medicines, including antibiotics, as a prevention or cure for COVID-19 isn’t recommended,” WHO said.

Unluckily, there is still no approved cure to treat the coronavirus, but there are treatments approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that may help ease the symptoms. Inhaling salt water steam is not among them.

It is indeed beneficial to everyone to practice self-care through observing proper hygiene and taking even the most common symptoms seriously to stop the virus from spreading and infecting more people but it is also important to follow the recommended medical protocols instead of being dependent on the medications which are not proven effective yet.

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The author is Teacher II at Pampanga High School