Bhubaneswar, Feb 25: Thousands of patients visited the Arogya Mela, a national- level comprehensive health fair, organised by the ministry of Ayush in collaboration with the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and department of health and family welfare, Government of Orissa at Janata Maidan to avail the free checkups and medicine here Wednesday, the last day of the fair.
During the four-day fair patients with all sorts of problems had formed long queues to visit homeopathy, ayurvedic and unani doctors, send by the Central and the state government, to treat ailing people visiting the fair.
An initiative of the Central government to promote the five natural treatment procedure that includes Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Shiddha, Sowa-Rigpa and homoeopathy (AYUSH), the fair is being organised since 2008 and so far the department has conducted such fairs in different parts of the country. Though in Bhubaneswar the state government has been conducting state-level Aroyga Melas regularly, it was for the first time that the fair was conducted at a national level.
Basanmanjari Mahanty, a retired government employee said, “Since 2013, I have been suffering from joint pain. I have been undergoing treatment in a private hospital and have been taking allopathic medicines regularly but that didn’t help me. My son insisted that I visit this fair to avail of the ayurvedic treatment”.
Similarly Shatrugan Naik, who has been suffering from arthritis said, “I am not in a position to walk properly for the past couple of days. Since I wanted immediate recovery I opted for allopathic medicine but to no avail. Today being the last day of the fair I thought why not consult the ayurvedic doctor … and hope there is some remedy for my problem”.
Sushanjit Dey of ICC said “There has been good response from the visitors. More than 5000 patients availed of the opportunity. The main objective of the fair was to make people aware of the natural and herbal methods of treatment. Out target was to reach to the people who can’t avail (costly) treatment.”
Speaking about standardization of Ayurvedic medicines at the concluding day, Prof Kamadev Das, a senior practitioner in the field of Ayurveda, said that ayurverdic medicines too have side effects. “There is a misconception among people that ayurverdic medicines don’t have any side effects, but the truth is one has to be careful while using any medicines for a long period. One must consult ayurvedic doctor regularly. ”
Herbal medicines has less side effects but now the medicine companies are using poly herbals in which herbal, mineral, metals, animal parts etc are used and these may cause side effects, he informed.
Elaborating on the issue, Prof das said that there should be a guideline for the manufacturing company of ayurvedic medicines and they should mention the time and place of collection of the raw materials so that (we know) the efficacy of the herbs (various types of herbs have various shelf lives) and therefore the medicines.
Around 100 medicine and wellness companies from across the country participated in the fair.
