A report on a study has been published in Homeopathy, journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy. It is the largest ever trial of homeopathy, drawing on information from 11 million people, affected by Leptospirosis in Cuba. The number of cases fell dramatically among the 2.3 million people in the worst affected areas, who were given homeopathic treatment, whereas rates in other areas were as predicted. Click here for the full report.

After receiving some severe setbacks homeopathy has won the last round in its battle with the medical profession.  England’s Department of Health has rejected demands to stop funding the use of homeopathy in the NHS.  Local primary care trusts should be left to make up their own minds as to whether the treatment is appropriate for their patients.

Click here to see the full report.

In the week that doctors have described homeopathy as ‘nonsense on stilts’, a Nobel prize-winning scientist has made a discovery about the nature of water that suggests the therapy does have a scientific basis. Professor Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who won the Nobel prize for discovering a link between HIV and AIDS, has shocked fellow Nobel prize-winners by telling them that water has a memory that continues even after many dilutions. The idea is one of the foundations of homeopathy, which maintains that the potency of a substance is increased with its dilution.

Montagnier has discovered that solutions containing the DNA of viruses and bacteria “could emit low frequency radio waves”. These waves influence molecules around them, and turn them into organised structures. These molecules in turn can emit waves. He has discovered that the waves remain in the water, even after it has been diluted many times.

Montagnier’s statement couldn’t happen at a worse time for doctors. Last week, the UK’s British Medical Association (BMA) – the trade union of doctors – passed a resolution to stop homeopathy being made available on the National Health Service. It also wants all homeopathic remedies to be placed in a special area marked ‘Placebos’ in health shops and pharmacies. The NHS currently spends around £4m a year on homeopathy, mainly by funding four homeopathic hospitals in the UK.

(Sources: Sunday Times, July 4, 2010; British Medical Association).

Homeopathy can prevent Japanese Encephalitis (JE) infection that infects 50,000 and kills 10,000 in South and Southeast Asia each year, report Indian researchers in the American Journal of Infectious Diseases. A study by researchers at Kolkata’s School of Tropical Medicine and the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy found that the homeopathic medicine Belladonna prevented infection in chick embryos infected with the JE virus.

For the full article, click here.

Scores of pro-homeopathy supporters demonstrated outside the Brighton Centre today ahead of doctors voting on whether homeopathic remedies should be banned on the NHS.

Medics at the British Medical Association (BMA) conference voted three to one in favour of banning NHS funding for homeopathic remedies and removing support for the UK’s four homeopathic hospitals.

They said NHS doctors should not be trained in homeopathy and remedies should be taken off shelves “labelled medicines” and put on shelves “labelled placebos”.

One doctor described homeopathy as “nonsense on stilts” while another said patients would be better off buying bottled water.

But some doctors said their patients seemed to benefit despite no clinical trial evidence that homeopathy worked.

Proposing the motion, Dr Mary McCarthy, a GP from Shropshire, said homeopathic doctors claimed it made people feel better.

“Lots of things make you feel better – a sunny day, the smell of the sea, a hug, retail therapy,” she said.

“It can do harm by diverting patients from conventional medical treatments.”

She said the issue was about NHS funding and promotion and would not prevent homeopaths from practising.

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