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VANCOUVER - British Columbia's top doctor and an alternative-medicine group are both expressing concern about a Victoria naturopath who treated a four-year-old boy with a rabid-dog saliva remedy.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says she is urging Health Canada to review its approval of lyssin, a naturopathic product that claims to contain the infected saliva.

Henry says in a statement that the product could put patients at risk of contracting rabies, a deadly virus usually transmitted through a bite, if it contains the virus. She also warns that such treatments are not substitute for vaccines.

"While I believe that homeopathy plays a complimentary role for some families in their health, I have concerns that some people may delay or avoid proven effective treatments while relying on homeopathy alone," Henry said in a statement.

She said she has seen examples where parents believe homeopathic treatments can replace health measures like immunizations, when that's clearly not the case and could leave their children at risk of serious infections.

Health Canada said the lyssin/hydrophominum products on the Canadian market that it has approved are safe for consumption and have met high standards to demonstrate the product is safe.

"Health Canada takes the safety of health products on the Canadian market very seriously," Health Canada said in an emailed statement.

"Should a product not meet the terms of its market authorization, Health Canada will take immediate action."

In a blog post that has since been removed, practitioner Anke Zimmermann detailed her treatment of the boy's sleep and behavioural problems as a success.

The boy growled like a dog, couldn't sleep because he was afraid of werewolves and was often defiant and over-excited, the post said.

She noted the boy was once bitten by a dog and it broke the skin.

Despite some expected relapses, she reports that the remedy "worked very well."

In an interview, Zimmerman said that while the remedy begins with saliva that contains rabies, she doesn't believe any virus remains in the sugar pill, after an extensive process of dilution.

"The remedies are prepared to the point that not even one molecule of the original substance is left in the solution," Zimmermann said.

She likened it to anti-venom, which may use a small dose of venom to treat a snake bite.

But she said critics can't have it both ways, when they criticize homeopathy.

"It either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't matter what the remedies are made from, because if it's just water, who cares. If it does work, then we really should look at the great potential homeopathy has."

She said she took down the original post after receiving hundreds of hateful messages, including threats of injury.

The B.C. Naturopathic Association filed a complaint Thursday against Zimmermann, claiming she may have breached the association's code of conduct and code of ethics for naturopathic doctors.

It notes that Zimmermann is not a member of the association but her conduct still reflects on the organization.

"We are concerned that certain statements and posts she has made, in person and online, appear to be contrary to the public interest in the practice of the profession — and therefore require action on the part of the regulator to intervene," co-president Victor Chan said in a statement.

The B.C. Association of Homeopaths defended the use of the product in a letter it sent to Dr. Henry, the same day.

It said the use of nosodes, or homeopathic remedies, goes back hundreds of years and they are used in practice regularly.

"Lyssinum is just one of many nosodes that homeopaths have available to use in practice and has been part of our pharmacopeia since 1833," the letter said.

"Because they are prepared as a homeopathic remedy going through the process of potentization, as a result, the end product doesn't bear any toxicity or infectious elements that would be a threat to the public."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2018