Drug cos. continue undermining homeopathy: Homeopathy under attack in Australia

Another instance of the insidious campaign against homeopathy by the drug companies.

The complementary medicines industry has stopped short of backing the use homeopathic vaccines in light of a renewed attack on the products in the mainstream media.

"There is definitely a place for homeopathy in the treatment of disease states in Australia," Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC) executive director Dr Wendy Morrow told Pharmacy News.

"Whether or not it should be used in vaccinations is an issue that is very vexatious but it is not a use that the CHC would support."

Writing in the The Australian on the weekend, prominent pharmacy consultant Ron Batagol criticised the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for allowing the sale of homeopathic vaccines which, he claimed, could lead to life threatening situations if they were relied upon.

"One shudders to think of the danger that pharmacists and other health professionals could, however unwittingly, be complicit in, even legally liable for, if they don't advise parents to seek medical advice where this is clearly warranted, or suggest appropriate, symptomatic treatment with a pharmacy-based over-the-counter medication in the first instance, rather than selling or, heaven forbid, recommending homoeopathics for use by children or infants," Mr Batagol wrote.

"So, I have just one question for our health regulators: how do you sleep at night knowing you continue to allow homoeopathic products to be legally peddled in the healthcare marketplace as substitutes for effective therapeutic treatment for the most helpless and vulnerable members of the community, our children?"

However, Dr Morrow said the onus was on the individual to decide whether to take a homeopathic vaccine.

"Individuals do have a right to make a choice," she said.

"The issue becomes not the availability of homeopathy but in the way in which it is used by individuals. We don't believe that complementary medicines should be an alternative to Western medicines. We believe that it should be complementary to Western medicine but in one sense it really is up to the individual to use the tools that are available to them in the best possible way."

Despite that, Dr Morrow signalled that the TGA did have a role to play in curbing the promotion of homeopathic vaccines.

"I remain unconvinced that the TGA has a role to play in telling people to be vaccinated or not," she said.

"I believe that is a professional issue and not a production issue per se, although homeopathic medicines should not be advertised for vaccination use."

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