Home remedial treatments for COVID-19 in Sirajganj district, Bangladesh

Abstract

COVID-19, the latest pandemic to hit the world is caused by a coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and follows similar but not so widespread outbreaks by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) corona viruses. This latest outbreak, which started in Wuhan, China at the tail end of December 2019, has already caused (as of February 20, 2022) 424,434,253 infections and 5,903,704 deaths worldwide. In Bangladesh, the corresponding numbers are 1,933,291 infections and 28,965 deaths. No fully effective drugs have been discovered thus far for tackling this coronavirus, or so for that matter, any of the seven coronaviruses affecting human beings. A number of vaccines have been developed in the Western countries, Russia and China, and have gained approval for administration only very recently. That still leaves several major questions to be answered, namely how can developing countries get proper access to the vaccine (s) and store them and administer them in a correct manner taking into account that richer nations have bought up most of the vaccine stock available, whether new mutations of SARS-CoV-2 like delta and omicron variants may partly or fully invalidate the vaccine(s), and last but not the least, to vaccinate with two doses of the vaccine(s) along with 1-2 booster doses somewhere around 80% of the world population of nearly 8 billion, which scientists say is necessary to develop herd immunity. As a result people in countries like Bangladesh have resorted to their personal home remedial measures against COVID-19 and claims of success are heard quite often. We report here some home remedial measures used in Sirajganj district of Bangladesh and note that over the last two years COVID-19 has been in existence, these home remedies are beginning to coalesce into a distinct form unique for COVID-19 treatment. We also report that quite valid scientific support can be found behind these home remedies despite the fact that these remedies have been formulated and used by mostly rural people of the country.