Effectiveness of Arsenicum album 30C in Prevention of COVID-19 in Individuals Residing in Containment Zones of Delhi-A Prospective, Community-based, Parallel Cohort Study.

Objective: This work was undertaken to evaluate the protective effect of 30C against COVID-19.

Design: The work was designed as a prospective parallel cluster cohort study.

Intervention: Participants were enrolled in a homeopathy intervention (HI) cohort (who received ) or in a non-intervention (NI) cohort (who received no systematic intervention) from COVID-19 containment areas of Delhi. Individuals of age 5 years or above were given four medicated pills of 30C, while those from 1 to 5 years old were given two medicated pills in each dose.

Results: The analysis included 10,180 individuals residing in 11 COVID-19 containment areas in Delhi, out of which 6,590 individuals were in the HI cohort and 3,590 individuals were in the NI cohort. The overall protective effect of 30C was 83.43% (95% confidence interval [CI], 76.77 to 88.17): 45 cases per 6,590 (8.34 per 10,000 person-weeks) in the 30C group versus 143 cases per 3,590 (45.01 per 10,000 person-weeks) in the NI cohort. The protective effect of 30C against laboratory confirmed COVID-19 was 74.40% (95% CI, 55.08 to 85.41): 18 cases per 6,590 (3.32 per 10,000 person-weeks) in the 30C group versus 38 cases per 3,590 (11.85 per 10,000 person-weeks) in the NI cohort.

Conclusion: The   use of 30C was associated with some protection against probable and laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in a containment-zone setting. Randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm or refute these results.