Deal with the deadly sting

Dr Ravi Kant

Seems like a chapter from a comic on war games - Indians trying to escape Chinese mosquitoes and their deathly sting! The bite of Aedes albopictus mosquito, which causes dengue, has hardly spared any household this year. Hospitals and nursing homes are jam-packed with fresh cases each day. Here’s how homeopathy can help. 

Know the fever

Dengue fever is a type of hyper-pyrexia caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Symptoms of dengue fever include high grade fever with body ache, pain in joints and muscles, swollen lymph nodes, headache, exhaustion and rashes. The dengue triad — fever, rash and headache — are its characteristic.

Modern science has no specific medicine or antibiotic to treat it; and only electrolyte imbalance is maintained, with plenty of fluids and mild anti-pyretic drugs, so as to prevent drop in platelet count and blood pressure. Papaya leaf extract is also used to treat dengue fever. Dengue haemorrhagic fever is a specific syndrome and this complication causes abdominal pain, haemorrhage and circulatory collapse. Signs include bleeding gums and nose, severe pain behind eyes and red palms as well as soles. Petechial haemorrhages, black stools or easy bruising are also possible signs of haemorrhage and this could be life-threatening. Dengue can affect anyone, but tends to be more severe in people with compromised immune systems. It is possible to get dengue fever multiple times as it is caused by one of five serotypes of the dengue virus.

How to avoid it?

Eradicate mosquitoes by using repellent sprays in localities. Empty stagnant water from pots, old tyres, trash cans and coolers. People should wear full-sleeve shirts, pants and shoes; and should stay indoors two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset. 

The mosquito can bite at any time of the day and is often hidden inside homes or other dwellings, especially in urban areas. One should take good care on falling sick with this fever, by taking plenty of fluids and fruits like kiwi, Vitamin C rich fruits and papaya leaf juice.

Homoeopathy cures

A vast range of drugs are available in homoeopathy to cure this deadly disease. Treatment is done taking into consideration the specific symptoms of the patient and not the general symptoms of the disease. For example, the amount and frequency of the thirst, the mental state of the patient, the chill time, nausea, vomiting, taste of mouth, heat or coldness of body, especially extremities; restlessness or stupor, swelling of joints, location and time of headache, etc. Drugs like Eupatorium Perf., Arsenic Album, Veratrum Album, Camphor, Bryonia Alb., etc, are useful in the treatment. Mother tinctures like Tinosporea Cordyfolia, Carica Papaya, Nyctanthes Arb., Piper Nigricum are also useful in treating dengue fever and increasing platelet count. 

In localities where a specific drug is turning out to be useful in a vast majority of patients, without being prejudiced, can be used as Genus Epidemicus i.e. as preventive and not a specific drug for all times to come. However, all medicines should and must be taken under medical supervision.

(Dr Kant is a Chandigarh-based homeopath)