My Experiences in the Treatment of Tuberculosis
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 May / Jun VOL II NO 3.
Dr Kishore Mehta
'Tub-b / Calc / Aur-met / Streptoc / Staphyco

The allopathic system of medicine claims to totally cure Tuberculosis, but the number of patients with tuberculosis is progressively increasing as the tubercular Bacilli have developed in many cases multiple drug resistance.

Awareness of the disease has turned patients, particularly in the metropolitan cities, towards Homoeopathic treatment. My experience in the treatment of Tuberculosis has been quite encouraging.

My first experience was in 1977, when I happened to visit a 54-yr patient, a relative of the then secretary of the Mumbai Homoeopathic College, having Pontine Tuberculosis and on his deathbed. They opted for Homoeopathy as a last resort, after the attending consultant abandoned them.

When I saw him, he was semiconscious, totally emaciated, had no strength to talk, constantly muttering, with low-grade fever with rapid pulse; his body was covered, yet he wanted the fan.

I was then a novice, and had no experience of such cases. But I took the courage to treat as the relatives had no hopes and were prepared for the worst outcome. I gave him a dose of Tuberculinum-bovinum 1M, not expecting much response. To my great surprise, after 15 days I saw the patient in my clinic. X-ray skull showed regression of tumor and gradually he improved. He is still living today, at the age of 77 yrs.

My prescription of Tuberculinum had no basis at the level of symptoms. It was a pathological prescription or honestly speaking, an empirical prescription. But the result opened my eyes and I studied Tuberculinum-bovinum from many books and concluded that the drug acted only on the indication of "when no drug is seemingly indicated with the family and past history of TB and lack of immunity, Tuberculinum-bovinum can be prescribed. First dose of Tuberculinum in any difficult case is however a most weighty prescription'. This is true when liver, heart and kidneys are of sound function in children, seniles and young seniles.

This experience encouraged me to treat Tuberculosis.
The next case was of a girl of 12 years, who had Menarche 2 months ago. She had recurrent respiratory complaints with every change of weather, which developed after eating or drinking anything cold. She did not respond to any acute or constitutional drug for about a month. She was advised CBC, ESR, Mantoux test and X-ray chest. X-ray showed bilateral hilar markings, ESR-80mm/hr and Mantoux test positive. She was advised by her family physician to undergo AKT*. Although clinically she did not have Tuberculosis, the argument was that Tubercular bacilli are active and patient may suffer from the same disease if not treated with AKT. However, they decided opted for Homoeopathic treatment as they had faith in Homoeopathy.

In this case again Tuberculinum-bovinum 1M 1 dose was given, only on the basis of the clinical condition. Plus Calcarea-phos 3x as a physiological salt, along with diet regulation mainly on vegetables and avoiding cold drinks. This was after reference to Boericke's Materia Medica.

After 1 dose of Tuberculinum-bov and Calcarea-phos 3x (Dr Boericke has advised 2x, but since it was not available 3x was prescribed)- 2 tablets 3 times a day. Her general condition improved though her cough and cold did not respond much. During this period she developed acute cold, cough and fever. Streptococcin 1M- 1 dose took 2 days to control this infection and to recover. Gradual improvement continued. After 1 month, all her investigations were normal.

In my experience of 25 years, another case comes to mind of a recently married male who developed pulmonary Tuberculosis in the Rt lung apex. He was on AKT since one month. He had suffered from no other illness in the past. By occupation he was a Medical Representative and had no faith in Homoeopathy.

On going through the history, a very important event was brought out. He had married his own sister's daughter. He was totally abandoned by his family members. He himself had guilt feeling. He and his wife were staying separately in a very old chawl. Here he got infected due to the bad environment. He had severe dry cough, cold with loss of appetite, loss of weight with low-grade fever. He had enlarged sub mandibular and anterior cervical glands. He was brought to me by his brother, who had little or no feelings for him. This patient was not improving inspite of AKT for a month. He was lean, fair, and pale with golden hair and gray eyes, very weak and could hardly speak. He was very depressed and when asked about his feelings, he said he was passing through a phase of sadness because of multiple reasons: financial crisis, family IPR, his sickness and his wife's mental state. He was of the opinion that he married his niece after a total understanding between them. Niece did not have any resistance nor was she forced to marry. And both knew the consequences. But they never expected such a rejection from the family. Nobody came to see him during the illness. Both of them felt isolated. He felt hurt by this behavior of his family members. At this moment I drew his attention to the hurt he gave to his family members by his action. He had no answer except crying. (Justified?)

This case to me appeared to be of a psychosomatic nature, wherein physical environment was only a trigger factor. He had a strong feeling that he was being punished for his 'crime'. In sleep he used to cry at times without being aware. He had deep suicidal feeling, but was holding on because of his wife.

Following Symptoms Were Taken Into Account

1. A/F mortification
2. Suicidal thoughts
3. Weeps, sleep during
4. Guilt feeling
5. Abandoned feeling
6. Lean, pale
7. Dry cough < night.

In this case, the mental state was predominant. At the same time there were not many characteristic symptoms available at the physical level. Natrum-mur and Aurum-metallicum were coming very close. Aurum-met 200, 1 dose was prescribed on the basis of guilt and suicidal thoughts with such a strong will and isolated feeling which were very predominant.

The very first change: a little cheerful although cough and loss of appetite persisted. Aurum-met 200 were given 6 times in about 1 month time. Gradually his appetite improved (AKT was stopped right from day 1). Later only Placebo. In 3 months, he recovered totally.

THE 4TH CASE, worth narrating, was of a woman, 42 years, who had multiple, cervical and mandibular tubercular glands (Biopsy report) came to me in 1995. Already she under went surgical intervention and AKT, yet she was developing tubercular glands continuously. When I saw her, she had total loss of appetite, nausea, pallor, weakness and was hopeless of her recovery, constantly weeping. A detailed case was taken. O/E pulse rapid, Glands hard and tender +. She was prescribed constitutional drug Calc-flour 1M , once a day for three days. She came with severe pain, swelling and tenderness of gland with further loss of appetite and low grade fever.

Following Boericke's guidelines about Calcarea-fluor, I did not to do anything with this aggravation and allowed this reaction to express fully. After 3 days she came back with high fever and oozing pus from one gland. I gave her a dose of Staphylococcin 1M to overcome the acute infection. In 2 days time the pus stopped coming out, the culture showed Staphyloccus Aureus positive. After this her appetite improved but she could not eat much. Other glands were as hard as earlier. The gland, which had pus, softened. No medicines were given for about 3 weeks. She came back to me with another gland inflamed and tender with gradual rise in temperature. She was not given any medicine. She came after a few days with similar picture of pain and swelling and tenderness of another gland. By this time previous suppurated glands became soft and started healing. From this experience I thought that each gland might suppurate like this and ooze. I did not give any medicines, the same phenomena repeated in this gland also, when I gave her Staphylococcin. Her appetite improved much. She had no other complaints, but the other glands were not responding further.

No change was noticed in her remaining glands for about 6 months, although for 6 months I repeated Calcarea-fluor 1M - 7 doses and waited for about 3 months without much difference in her glands. The only change observed was softening of her glands without suppuration and pain. No medicines were prescribed. After 3 - 4 months there was a change in her symptomatology. She became chilly, started developing cough and cold very easily, constipated, and had profuse perspiration. I got her investigated for blood, x-ray chest, etc. which were NAD. She also had severe throat infection with difficulty in swallowing. I reviewed the case and found that Silica was indicated. I was afraid to give Silica as in Tuberculosis it is contraindicated according to the opinion of various stalwarts. Nevertheless, I gave her Silica 1M - 1 dose only with the understanding that it was indicated. After few days of Silica 1M she came down with very high fever, painful and tender glands, difficulty in swallowing, severe headache and total loss of appetite, very chilly and wanted me to give my opinion regarding the prognosis. I advised them to wait for sometime and observe.

I gave serious thought to her following disease phenomena:

1. Patient had multiple tubercular glands.
2. Infection resistant to AKT.
3. Disease expressions and constitutional expressions both indicated Calcarea-flour.
4. Calcarea-flour prescribed as the constitutional drug.
5. One after another 2 glands suppurated, general condition improving after that.
6. Pus culture of both the glands showed Staphylococcus-aureus positive.
7. Staphylococcus 1M given to overcome the acute crisis (reference - Boericke) ie secondary infection overlapping the main infection.
8. It was expected that each gland would suppurate one by one like this, but it did not happen.
9. Calcarea-fluor repeated to induce the process.
10. Multiple glands got enlarged and new symptomatology emerged.
11. Silica was indicated on the basis of symptoms.
12. Silica bought out acute condition simultaneously in all the glands.
13. The fate of the suppurating glands also would be that of previous two glands.
14. General condition and weight increase in between shows the improvement in the general immunity.
15. The present acute condition can be nothing but an eliminating process and should not be suppressed.
16. Therefore, it would be wise to allow the process to take its natural course.
17. The above analysis and evaluation led me to wait and watch. Local application of Calendula and Echinesea was given during this period.

It took about 5 months for get all the glands to regress and heal completely. The patient is totally cured and is living a healthy life now.

One can conclude from the above experiences:

1. AKT resistant cases are progressively increasing.
2. Homoeopathic therapy has a better answer.
3. Perfect management of the case, particularly in follow-ups is very important.

Dr Boericke's Materia Medica gives good guidelines for the treatment of Tuberculosis. Read Phosphorus and Tuberculinum-bovinum.

·         The term generally used is MDR (multiple drug resistance). Homeo treatment has a great role in TB due to MDR.

·         **AKT = anti-kochs treatment