A Historical Perspective: Homeopathy and Epidemics

Infections and Fevers

“It is a rare thing for pneumonia to develop if a good homeopathic physician is called during the first 24 hours of an attack of influenza.”
– S.H. Grimmer, M.D., Chicago, Illinois

Homeopathy has helped millions of people survive epidemics and pandemics for over 200 years. (see links below). Historically, homeopathy has been more successful in preventing outbreaks and deaths from epidemics than conventional treatments overall.

  • We are always ready to prescribe swiftly and quickly—according to the presenting symptoms.

Homeopathy and Influenza

It was asked – Should a deadly influenza virus once again stalk the earth, would homeopathy be able to offer any protection in this age of high-powered technology and modern chemicals? So let’s have a look back at how homeopathy fared through the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, and see what lessons might be there.*

Some dramatic references of a time in history when homeopathic doctors rose so successfully to the challenge of the most appalling influenza epidemic in history. Following are just a few of many excerpts and personal accounts of doctors who not only lived through that terrible time—but so did their patients. [American Institute of Homeopathy in 1920]:

  • Dr. T. A. McCann, from Dayton, Ohio, at the 77th Annual Convention of the American Institute of Homeopathy in Washington, C.C., in 1921 reported that 24,000 cases of flu were treated allopathically which had a mortality rate of 28.2%, while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of only 1.05%
  • In a plant of 8,000 workers we had only one death. The patients were not drugged to death. The homeopathic medicine Gelsemium was practically the only remedy used. We used no Aspirin and no vaccines. – Frank Wieland, M.D., Chicago, Illinois.
  • Absence of the customary drugging was also an element of the remarkable success in this plant. – Burton Haseltine, M.D., Chicago, Illinois.
  • I did not lose a single case of influenza; my death rate in the pneumonias was 2.1%. The salycilates, including Aspirin and Quinine, were almost the sole stand-by of the old school and it was a common thing to hear them speaking of losing 60% of their pneumonias. – Dudley A. Williams, M.D., Providence, R.I.
  • 35o cases and lost one, a neglected pneumonia that came to me after she had taken one hundred grains of Aspirin in twenty-four hours. – Cora Smith King, M.D., Washington, D.C.
  • In Hahnemann Hospital of San Francisco, homeopathic remedies acted in a curative way while, with some other forms of treatment, the result was only palliative. Laura A. Hurd M.D., San Francisco, California.
  • I treated 618 cases and had 5 deaths. Three of these had had allopathic treatment. – R.S. Faris, M.D., Richmond, Virginia
  • It is a rare thing for pneumonia to develop if a good homeopathic physician is called during the first 24 hours of an attack of influenza. An appalling death rate comes from the baneful results of large does of Aspirin, salicylate and opium preparations. – S.H. Grimmer, M.D., Chicago, Illinois.
  • Murphy, of Lansing, Michigan, treated 325 cases of influenza in a camp where the mortality had been 20%, while the mortality under his homeopath treatment was less than 3%. – W.H. Wilson, M.D., Chicago, Illinois.
  • I have treated 1,000 cases of influenza. I have records to show my work. I have no losses. Please give all credit to Homeopathy and none to the Scotch-Irish-American! – T.A. McCann, M.D., Dayton, Ohio.
  • And more. * **

The amazing and most outstanding aspect of these reported cases is the fact that these homeopathic doctors recognized the fatal effects of aspirin in treating viral infections —fifteen years before viruses were discovered and 45 years before the connection between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome was known!

These homeopaths were not hog-tied by the lack of a diagnosis during that epidemic. They didn’t need to “name the disease” in order to save their patients. They took detailed and accurate cases, and prescribed the indicated homeopathic remedy for the case presented to them at the moment, and then they allowed the remedy and the immune system of the patient to collaborate and respond.

And when it happens again – as it is now – we can be confident that homeopathy, as it proved to do in the past, will be ready and equal to the challenge once again, by whatever name or mutation the disease is called.

Currently, homeopaths around the globe are working to determine the best prophylactic protocol as well as the most commonly indicated remedies for treating this virus. Updates continue to unfold. Yet, we are always ready to prescribe swiftly and quickly—according to the presenting symptoms.

* Sandra J. Perko, Ph.D., C.C.N., The Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza, Surviving Influenza Epidemics and Pandemics Past, Present and Future with Homeopathy

**Julian Winston, The Faces of Homeopathy: An Illustrated History of the First 200 Years

Historical Foundation of Homeoprophylaxis

For over 200 years, in many cities around the world, practitioners of homeopathy have been treating and preventing infectious disease. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the Founder of Homeopathy, first became aware of this mode of disease prevention in 1801 through his use of Belladonna for scarlet fever.[i] Since then, homeopathy has been used to treat and prevent all forms of infectious disease from the likes of childhood illness, to epidemics of polio,[ii] influenza,[iii] meningitis,[iv] dengue[v] and leptospirosis, among others.[vi]

Click here to read more from Shelly

[i] http://www.homeopathycenter.org/homeoprophylaxis-human-records-studies-and-trials

[ii] http://www.homeopathycenter.org/treatment-epidemics-homeopathy-history

[iii] http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/homeopathy-allopathy-and-the-1918-influenza-pandemic

[iv] http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/homeopathy-allopathy-and-the-1918-influenza-pandemic/

[v] http://ccrhindia.org/pdf/dengue_information_new.pdf

[vi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20674839

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