A combination Siddha drug reduces anemia among adolescent girls in Virudhunagar District of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The prevalence of anemia in India is worrisome; the Government is aiming to reduce the prevalence of anemia among women at adolescent and child bearing age. A Public Health Initiative was undertaken to mainstream the use of Siddha drugs to combat anemia among the adolescent girls of Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu, India. With the assistance from the Siddha physicians in Primary Health Centers and Government hospitals, adolescent girls with anemia were identified. After obtaining informed consent, the girls with anemia received a Siddha treatment regimen (Aṉṉapēti centūram, Bāvaṉa kaṭukkāy, Mātuḷai maṇappāku and Nellikkāy lēkiyam; ABMN) for 45 days. Deworming was done with Cuṇṭaivaṟṟal cūraṇam before the start of the treatment. The clinical and biochemical features were studied before and after ABMN treatment. Through this program, 14,179 adolescent girls were screened for anemia and 3,783 girls were found anemic; out of them 2,300 (86.85%) girls completed the 45 days program. Marked reduction of various clinical features of anemia was found with ABMN treatment. ABMN treatment improved the hemoglobin content by 24.30% (N=155), 15.96% (N=1440) and 4.29% (p=0.0005; N=705) in severe, moderate and mild anemic girls, respectively. Long term, multicentric investigations are needed to conclude the efficacy and safety of ABMN for treating iron deficiency anemia.