THE MOST COMMERCIALIZED APITHERAPY PRODUCTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN JOÃO PESSOA/PB

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO), in its strategy about traditional medicine 2014-2023, claims that the traditional medicine is an important and mostly times underestimated part of health services, and that, in some countries, this traditional or unconventional medicine is referred as complementary medicine or therapy, despite it has been historically used to maintain the health and to prevent and treat diseases. The Apitherapy is an integrative method that uses the products produced by the bees in its hives, which are used to promote and maintain the health. The products have been used by different civilizations to treat different diseases. The propolis is one of the many natural products used during centuries by the humanity, with different forms of administration. The use of products from Apitherapy is common in Brazil, which are commonly marketed in homeopathic drugstores. This study aimed to identify the most marketed Apitherapy in homeopathic drugstores, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the municipality of João Pessoa-PB. The most marketed products were the propolis and the royal jelly, with an emphasis on the propolis. This result indicates that the use of these products considers two aspects: 1. To prevent or to treat people with COVID-19, with symptoms as cough, sore throat and others. 2. To treat other pathologies, considering that one of the consequences of the social isolation was the difficulty to access the health services, as well as the fear of the population to leave their houses, what lead these people to use natural products of therapeutic activity, which were already known and more accessible.