Covid-19: BITS Pilani-Hyderabad suggests AYUSH tactics to decrease transmission

A start-up at BITS-Pilani Hyderabad has come up with a nutraceutical formulation-based approach to reduce community transmission of coronavirus. The BITS team has been guided by Suman Kapur who is the Senior Professor and Dean of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad. Moreover, the promoter of Xcellence in Bio Innovations (xBITS), a startup from TBI, is also a part of the team. Together, they have come up with a formulation which can be tested in a 14-day period clinical efficacy trial, using a case-control design. According to Kapur, if found effective, it would make life easier for half a million Indians as a part of quarantine in state-run facilities or at home.

It has the capability to impede human-to-human transmission and could have a noteworthy impact on the duration of the nationwide lockdown. This is an approach based on AYUSH and comes in retort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for inventive tactics to block the spread of virus. The PM had communicated with agents of the Ministry of Alternative Medicines (AYUSH) and urged experts to look into the use of tactics based on AYUSH to tackle the spread of this deadly pandemic.

This could assist in making a drink, mouthwash and a syrup checked by FSSAI-approved nutraceuticals. It would also work as a detergent to finish the lipid envelope of the virus and degenerate it. This is like the detergent-based approach accepted across the globe for hand sanitisation. The AYUSH tactic aspires to wash off the virus in the mouth and throat of a diseased person within the first few days of its existence. According to Prashant Sinha of BITS Hyderabad Incubation Centre, they are trying to commercialise this innovation and seek government intervention.

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