science

Homeoprophylaxis

Homeoprophylaxis is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Homeoprophylaxis rather than just read about it. In short: Homeoprophylaxis, or homeopathic prophylaxis, is the use of homeopathy, as a preventive medicine or immunisation against serious infectious diseases. History Malaria The concept came to wider notice in the UK after an undercover operation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sense about Science and BBC Newsnight in 2006.

Key takeaways

Homeoprophylaxis belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Homeoprophylaxis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Homeoprophylaxis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Homeoprophylaxis, or homeopathic prophylaxis, is the use of homeopathy, as a preventive medicine or immunisation against serious infectious diseases.

History

Malaria The concept came to wider notice in the UK after an undercover operation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sense about Science and BBC Newsnight in 2006. Posing as a traveller to countries known to be affected by malaria a researcher visited pharmacies in London and recorded her conversations with homeopaths who offered the incorrect advice that homeopathic remedies could protect against malaria. Dr Peter Fisher, the then Director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (since renamed to Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine) told Newsnight that there was "absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria" and that "people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice." Following the programme's broadcast the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) began an investigation into some of the pharmacies involved but in 2011 announced it was dropping the cases citing improvements already made to prevent a re-occurrence and the cases not meeting the threshold criteria for a referral to the investigation committee.

Purported alternative to vaccines In 2010 a BBC Scotland programme found that three of the six members of the Homeopathic Medical Association, based in Scotland, were offering homeopathic MMR 'vaccines' to parents. In November 2014 the Canadian programme CBC Marketplace investigated the advice parents were being given in homeopathic practices in Toronto and Vancouver, finding that some "offered treatments, called "nosodes", created from biological materials such as pus, diseased tissue, bacilli from sputum or (in the case of "bowel nosodes") faeces", as vaccine alternatives, telling parents that the treatment is as effective as vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio and pertussis (whooping cough), which is highly contagious and can be fatal for infants", a practice described by Shannon MacDonald (a registered nurse and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Alberta) as "terribly irresponsible". In December 2014, Australian Federal Court found that homeopathy supplier Homeopathy Plus! and its director Frances Sheffield, had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct regarding both the effectiveness of the whooping cough vaccine and also implying that homeopathic alternatives were safe and effective in preventing whooping cough. In doing so they breached Australian Consumer Law. An undercover investigation in May 2019 by The Times highlighted the continued problem of some alternative medicine practitioners in the UK offering homeoprophylaxis. The Society of Homeopaths responded to one of their members being included in the feature (as someone who has offered homeoprophylaxis) by lodging an official complaint to IPSO, the press regulator. The Society's position statement "does not endorse the use of homeopathic medicines as an alternative to vaccination for the prevention of serious infectious diseases" though, somewhat conflictingly, also suggests that "homeoprophylaxis may be effective in certain circumstances".

COVID-19 pandemic

On 14 July 2021 Juli Mazi of Napa, a California-licensed naturopathic doctor, was arrested for "her alleged scheme to sell homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets and to falsify COVID-19 vaccination cards by making it appear that customers had received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Moderna vaccine." She is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters and is the first person to face a "federal criminal fraud prosecution related to homeoprophylaxis immunizations" or "for selling fake Covid-19 vaccination cards". According to Deputy Attorney General, Lisa O. Monaco “This defendant allegedly defrauded and endangered the public by preying on fears and spreading misinformation about FDA-authorized vaccinations, while also peddling fake treatments that put people’s lives at risk. Even worse, the defendant allegedly created counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards and instructed her customers to falsely mark that they had received a vaccine, allowing them to circumvent efforts to contain the spread of the disease." The story has also been reported in the Courthouse News Service, Ars Technica, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Homeoprophylaxis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Homeoprophylaxis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Homeoprophylaxis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Homeoprophylaxis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Homeoprophylaxis

In research: Homeoprophylaxis appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Homeoprophylaxis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Homeoprophylaxis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics COVID-19 misinformation, Homeopathy, Vaccine hesitancy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Homeoprophylaxis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Homeoprophylaxis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Homeoprophylaxis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Homeoprophylaxis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Homeoprophylaxis in simple terms?

Homeoprophylaxis, or homeopathic prophylaxis, is the use of homeopathy, as a preventive medicine or immunisation against serious infectious diseases. History Malaria The concept came to wider notice in the UK after an undercover operation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sense…

Why does Homeoprophylaxis matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Homeoprophylaxis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Homeoprophylaxis.