Difficult to Believe a Common Weed cures Dengue

 

Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that in recent decades 

has become a major international public health concern. 

Dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), a potentially lethal complication,

was first recognized in the 1950s during dengue epidemics in the

Philippines and Thailand. Today DHF affects most Asian countries and

has become a leading cause of hospitalization and death among

children in the region.

There are four distinct, but closely related, viruses that cause dengue.

Recovery from infection by one provides lifelong immunity against that

virus but confers only partial and transient protection against subsequent

infection by the other three viruses. There is good evidence that

sequential infection increases the risk of developing DHF.

The incidence of dengue has grown

dramatically around the world in

recent decades. Some 2.5 billion

people – two fifths of the world’s

population –are now at risk from

dengue.

WHO currently estimates there may be 50 million dengue infections

worldwide every year. In 2007 alone, there were more than 890 000

reported cases of dengue in the Americas, of which 26 000 cases

were DHF.

The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa,

the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-east Asia and the

Western Pacific. South-east Asia and the Western Pacific are the

most seriously affected. Before 1970 only nine countries had

experienced DHF epidemics, a number that had increased more

than four-fold by 1995.

Not only is the number of cases increasing as the disease is

spreading to new areas, but explosive outbreaks are occurring.

In 2007, Venezuela reported over 80 000 cases, including more

than 6000 cases of DHF.

The spread of dengue is attributed to expanding geographic distribution

of the four dengue viruses and their mosquito vectors, the most important

of which is the predominantly urban species Aedes aegypti. A rapid rise in

urban mosquito populations is bringing ever greater numbers of people

into contact with this vector, especially in areas that are favourable for

mosquito breeding, e.g. where household water storage is common and

where solid waste disposal services are inadequate.

Dengue viruses are transmitted to humans through the bites of infective

female Aedes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes generally acquire the virus while

feeding on the blood of an infected person. After virus incubation for

eight to 10 days, an infected mosquito is capable, during probing and

blood feeding, of transmitting the virus for the rest of its life. Infected

female mosquitoes may also transmit the virus to their offspring by

transovarial (via the eggs) transmission, but the role of this in sustaining

transmission of the virus to humans has not yet been defined.

Infected humans are the main carriers and multipliers of the virus,

serving as a source of the virus for uninfected mosquitoes. The

virus circulates in the blood of infected humans for two to seven

days, at approximately the same time that they have a fever;

Aedes mosquitoes may acquire the virus when they feed on an

individual during this period. (source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/)

Why keep it a secret?  This weed grows just about anywhere in the Philippines.  Its called “gatas-gatasan” (”milk”-”milk source”) in the tagalog-speaking Luzon and “tawa-tawa” (”laugh”-”laugh”) in the Visayas and Mindanaw islands.  Of course, the best kind are those that grow in non-polluted areas but one can find this weed just about anywhere.

When pulled out to include the roots and air-dried for a few days until dry and ready for boiling into tea, drink as much as you can each day and it will raise your blood platelet count as early as day 1 and eventually cure you of dengue. 

Needless to state, anyone enterprising can get rich by exporting capsules or teabags of this weed.  

I’d like to thank my friend Hilda B. Narciso who taught me not to fear Dengue by pulling out the weed from my own weedy garden and other friends who have used the weed for innumerable young and old dengue afflicted relatives and friends.

Within the first crucial 48 hours, a person exhibiting symptoms of dengue, should get a blood test to rule out Dengue because there are a lot of Dengue-like fevers.  There is a more practical way to test for Dengue…tie a rubber tourniquette around the upper arm and examine the skin below it for subcutaneous little red spots of blood.

A confirmed case of Dengue should be quarrantined to prevent mosquitoes from feeding on the virus-infected patient and further spreading the disease when it bites other individuals in the community.  this is done by simply serving food and using a bedpan on the patient who should remain inside a mosquito net-covered bed for the entire duration of the sickness.

The Ministry of Health’s criteria for admitting patients with dengue are when their blood platelet count drops to 80,000 and below, which puts them in danger of haemorrhaging. The platelet count tends to drop when the patient’s fever starts to subside. A normal person’s average count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000.

As long as the blood platelet count is above the critical number, it is okay for patients to remain at home. But, they should go for check-ups every day at a clinic to check their blood count. 

(http://www.asiaone.com/Health/Ask%2BThe%2BDoctor/Story/Dengue%2Bfever%2B101.html)

A platelet transfusion is indicated in rare cases if the platelet level drops significantly (below 20,000) or if there is significant bleeding. The presence of melena may indicate internal gastrointestinal bleeding requiring platelet and/or red blood cell transfusion.

Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be avoided as these drugs may worsen the bleeding tendency associated with some of these infections. Patients may receive paracetamol preparations to deal with these symptoms if dengue is suspected.

Emerging evidence suggests that mycophenolic acid and ribavirin inhibit dengue replication. Initial experiments showed a fivefold increase in defective viral RNA production by cells treated with each drug. In vivo studies, however, have not yet been done. Unlike HIV therapy, lack of adequate global interest and funding greatly hampers the development of treatment regime.

In Brazilian Traditional medicine, dengue is treated with cat’s claw herb, which is for inflammation and does not prevent dengue.

In Malaysia, dengue is newly treated using natural medicine Mas Amirtha and Semalu developed by the Alternative Medicine Research Institute, Center for Asia. The treatment is speculated to be able to arrest and reverse the viral infection and prevent the disease from advancing into a critical stage, though no evidence has yet shown effectiveness. In Philippines dengue patients use tawa-tawa herbs and sweet-potato-tops juice to increase the platelets counts and revive the patients. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever)

With the air-dried weeds in an airtight jar in the kitchen, however, a precautionary tea regimen coupled with periodic blood tests to monitor platelet count, avoids the periodic anxiety attack mothers suffer everytime a child or any house-member complains of a fever. 

So which will it be?  Soliciting blood from everyone you know including everyone they know, to extract the anti-viral platelets or tourniquette/periodic blood testing and this weed tea regimen?

Of course, preventive measures should be undertaken as well.  These include mosquito-screening our homes and maintaining them in good repair, daily use of VCO laced with citronella oil sprayed on your children’s exposed arms and neck or else on their school clothes to keep mosquitoes away and cleaning up vectors for mosquito breeding inside and outside our houses in stagnant waters in and around our communities.  

I’ve picked the weeds by this time and they’re air-drying in my kitchen now…

That’s it for my “no approved therapeutic claims” file (which is now quickly turning into a Ripley’s “believe it or not” file. Please see Related Posts: The Most Common of Weeds and Grasses; Virgin Coconut Oil vs. Swine Flu; Backyard Spirulina Cultivation Eradicates Malnutrition)