Clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients managed with modern and traditional Siddha medicine – A retrospective cohort study

Kabasura Kudineer (KSK) is a Siddha polyherbal decoction recommended by the Ministry of AYUSH and the Tamil Nadu government to prevent and manage COVID-19 in India. We aimed to determine the outcome of integrated therapy for COVID-19 using KSK in virologic clearance and length of hospital stay. It was a single-centre, retrospective cohort study. We included the COVID-19 patients admitted to SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Chennai, during May–June 2020. KSK was administered along with the standard of care for all the patients. We collected data pertaining to demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters and presented as frequencies and proportions. We collected 204 COVID-19 positive patients’ data. The mean (SD) age was 39.5 (13.4) years with a range of 13–79. Majority of the patients were male (n = 157; 77%), 28% (n = 58) had any co-morbidities, and 61% (n = 131) had mild symptoms. Fever (n = 57; 27.9%) and cough (n = 53; 25.9%) were the commonly reported symptoms. Paracetamol (n = 135; 66.7%) and Zincovit (n = 197, 96.6%) were the commonly administered medicines along with KSK. About 74% of asymptomatic (n = 54) and 65% of mild symptomatic (n = 85) patients turned negative for COVID-19 in RT-PCR within 4–7 days. There was a significant difference in the blood parameters (p < 0.05) after the integrated treatment. The use of KSK with standard care of treatment in COVID-19 treatment had notable results in the duration taken for virologic clearance, thereby reducing the length of hospital stay and improvement in laboratory parameters.