Comments
From the scientists
Dr Ron Behrens, Director, Hospital for Tropical Diseases Travel Clinic
We are urging the public to take on board this warning at a time of year when many people are planning to travel. The misleading travel advice being given by homeopaths is not a trivial problem. We have treated people at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases who thought they were protected by homeopathic medicines and contracted malaria. Giving malaria preventative advice involves assessing the risks associated with the destination, length of stay, the person’s plans and their own medical history, and selecting the most suitable and effective combination of antimalarial drug, detailing bite prevention measures and symptom advice. That homeopaths can promote unproven alternatives to this tried and tested process undermines all efforts to educate the travelling public about malaria and its prevention. The messages given by some homeopaths are inaccurate, counterproductive and place lives at risk.
Dr Geoff Butcher, Parasitology, Imperial College London
If the government and insurance companies can insist on accredited service and MOTs to reduce deaths on the road, why is it that homeopaths are allowed to remain in business? They should either be educated about malaria and licensed to give correct information and dispense standard antimalarials that have been tried and tested in the usual way, or they should be put out of business.
Professor Brian Greenwood, Clinician and Epidemiologist, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; President, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Malaria is a major risk to travellers to the tropics, especially in the most malarious parts of Africa. It can strike quickly and kill within 2 or 3 days of first symptoms. Anti-mosquito measures give some protection but, especially in high risk areas, it is advisable to take anti-malarial drugs too. These can cause some side effects but provide a high level of protection. These decisions require discussion with a knowledgeable person who can assess the risk and benefits. The use of homeopathy creates a more dangerous situation than taking no precautions if the traveller assumes that s/he is protected and does not seek help quickly for any illness that might be malaria.
Professor Hilary Hurd, Director of the Centre of Applied Entomology and Parasitology, Keele University; President of the British Society for Parasitology
It is very worrying that the majority of consultations provided no advice on bite prevention as this is the most effective way of preventing infection. As the anopheline mosquitoes that transmit malaria bite in the evening and at night, travellers should be advised to wear long trousers, socks and long sleeved shirts after dusk, to sleep under a bed net, ideally impregnated with insecticide, and to use an insect repellent on exposed skin.
Professor Geoffrey Pasvol, Infection & Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London
It is remarkable that the homeopathy fraternity are prepared to put peoples lives at risk without any evidence that their remedies work. Medical practitioners would be sued, taken to court – and found guilty for far less! What this investigation has unearthed is appalling.
Dr Jeremy Sternberg, Parasitologist, Aberdeen University
Malaria is a deadly disease. Especially with P. falciparum, you can’t take these kinds of chances. Homeopathy doesn’t offer any protection and I’m alarmed that anyone would gamble with people’s lives in this way.
Professor Nicholas White OBE FRS, Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford; Chair of the Wellcome Trust SE Asian Units and of the WHO antimalarial treatment guidelines committee
This is very dangerous nonsense and needs to be stopped. In SouthEast Asia, where I am working, we are battling against a rising tide of counterfeit antimalarials which kill, create public uncertainty and diminish faith in truly effective medicines. The prescribing of homeopathic remedies to prevent malaria is another reprehensible example of potentially lethal duplicity.
Other comments
Tracey Brown, Director, Sense About Science
At Sense About Science we are constantly being made aware of examples where the public is misled about scientific evidence. The public needs access to the best information and they should be alerted when claims are not supported by evidence or good science, particularly on important matters of public health like this.
Professor David Colquhoun FRS, pharmacologist at University College London
The source material that homeopaths use (e.g. common salt!) has been so diluted that not a single molecule is left in the medicine. The medicines therefore contain no medicine. To sell pills that contain nothing whatsoever and to pretend that they will protect you against malaria strikes me as nothing short of criminal. In the EU in 2000, 15,528 cases of malaria were reported to the WHO in returning travellers.
Professor Edzard Ernst, Laing Chair in Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School
There is not a single piece of published scientific research to show that the homeopathic remedies protect patients from malaria or any other infection. The advice given by homeopaths therefore is a serious threat to patients’ health.
Simon Singh, science writer and broadcaster
Homeopathy is not just useless, it is worse than useless in the case of malaria because it dupes people into thinking that they are protected when they are not. I was shocked that there was such willingness to give advice and sell products that would leave people exposed to a highly dangerous disease…
Beforehand I suspected that one or two homeopaths might offer pills to protect against malaria, but it turned out that ten out of ten were guilty of such irresponsible practice. This makes me think that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way homeopaths are regulated.
Last updated: September 18 2006
