Monday, August 29 2005 17:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thrissur: Homeopaths in Kerala have come out strongly against dubbing their branch of medicine as 'no better than dummy drugs' in an article in a top international medical journal.

"Multinational pharmaceutical corporations are behind such efforts to cast homeopathy in poor light. They are afraid of the growing popularity of homeopathy, which offers less costly medicines which are effective and free from side effects," Dr K K Nassir, a spokesman of Institution of Homeopaths, Kerala, told a press meet in Thrissur today (Aug 29, 2005).

The same journal had earlier published write-ups, describing homoeopathy as an effective discipline, free from side effects, he said.

"The aim of the recent article was to create misgivings among homeopathy patients and promote the sale of allopathic drugs. In developing countries like India, large sections of people depend on homeopathy, as the medicine cost was much less compared to other branches of medicine", he said.

Recently, about 27 lakh people had been administered preventive homeo medicine against viral fever and they were found very effective, he added.