In the wake of the measles resurgence, public health officials are warning against the use of ineffective homeopathic vaccine alternatives, saying they should be taken off the market.
These homeopathic vaccine alternatives are called homeopathic nosodes, described as a remedy prepared from a diluted pathological specimen (however, standard homeopathic remedies are so diluted that they really only contain water). There is no scientific evidence that these remedies provide any immunity against infectious diseases how could there be? And worse, some naturopaths and homeopaths are actually telling parents that these remedies are just as effective as vaccines against diseases such as polio and measles.
In Canada, homeopathic nosodes are required to be labeled: This product is not intended to be an alternative to vaccination. However, Nova Scotia s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, thinks labeling is not enough. Those warning labels really aren t having an impact, he explains.
He goes on to say that having them available on the market at all is dangerous. It s distracting and it s helping people avoid immunization or giving them a reason not to be immunized.
In 2013, Dr. Strang and his colleagues wrote to Health Canada (Canada s Federal department of public health), to request a ban on the selling of homeopathic nosodes. On Tuesday, they repeated their request.
Edmonton pediatrician Dr. Robert Moriarity also wants to put an end to misinformation being spread about homeopathic medicine. Licensed health officials and alternative health officials should be subject to the regulations of their profession and called to task if they continue to spread the anti-vaccination method, he stated.
ACSH s Dr. Gil Ross added this: The hawkers of homeopathic remedies are already well beyond the fringe of medicine and science so perhaps they see nothing worse in selling useless vaccine alternatives than they do in selling substance-free remedies for all the other ailments they want to help you treat or prevent. These slime-bags should be shut down, not just forced to wear some label, and a few of them going to jail would probably send a valid message to their peer-quacks.
