Johannesburg - A KwaZulu-Natal general practitioner, Dr Sankara Chetty, has been found guilty of unprofessional conduct by the Health Professions Council of SA for the unscientific Covid-19 treatment protocols he used on his 200 symptomatic patients of all ages in 2020.
Dr Chetty dedicated time at the height of the pandemic to critically review information that had come from observations of the Covid pandemic from around the world, and formed his own beliefs about what Covid was and how best to treat it. He also shared these views publicly, despite them going against the views of other practitioners and experts.
In an interview with the South African magazine Mordern Medicine, Dr Chetty said: “From the examination, treatment and follow-up of over 200 symptomatic Covid patients, it is my opinion that Covid illness has two aetiologies. It is initially a respiratory viral infection with typical symptoms, progression and outcomes over the initial seven days.
“On around day seven, a type 1 hypersensitivity reaction is triggered in those that are sensitive, leading to the sequelae typically seen on admission.”
“This reaction causes the release of chemical mediators in the lung, resulting in inflammation, oedema, and in time massive cell damage. The resultant cellular disruption is what triggers the ‘cytokine storm’ in an attempt to repair damaged cells and remove debris.
“This release of cytokine triggers a cascade of events that produces the variety of pathologies that are seen.”
Despite Dr Chetty’s protocols – which are said to have produced consistent outcomes, no sequelae, and the rapid recovery of all patients, with no deaths or hospitalisations and the recovery of all patients, regardless of age, within 14 days – the council found Dr Chetty to have been in contravention of four rules, namely:
Rule 19(b), which requires health practitioners to use only health technologies that have been proven upon investigation to be capable of fulfilling the claims made for them (the tenets of evidence-based modern medicine).
Rule 27(A)(a), which stipulates that health practitioners should act in the best interests of patients, including when they give advice on public platforms.
Rule 12, which provides that a practitioner must not engage in cost reflections in respect of other health-care practitioners.
The council also held that Chetty had discussed the cause of Covid-19 and the treatment thereof, as well as the prevention of severe illness in patients with the disease, in a manner that was not in line with the three tenets.
IOL