Dengue Day 2024: Experts on using home remedies like goat’s milk, aloe vera, papaya leaf, uncooked turmeric for treatment

Every year, May 16 is observed as ‘Dengue Day’ to spread awareness about the mosquito-borne viral infection, and ways to manage and prevent it. As such, there is no better day than today to understand the latest health updates and observations from experts pertaining to the condition, along with their take on the many home remedies people swear by to treat it.

During our conversation, we also asked experts about any similarities between dengue and Covid-19. Find out what they had to say.

Recent trends

“We have been noticing increasing bleeding tendencies in dengue patients of late. Cardiac complications have also risen; with heart rate decreasing to an abnormal level. The number of patients going into multi organ dysfunction syndrome are more in comparison to the last few years,” says Dr Prabhat Ranjan Sinha, Senior Consultant- Internal Medicine, Aakash Healthcare, New Delhi.

“High-grade fever, rashes all over the body, body aches are common symptoms, but severe pain in the abdomen, recurrent vomiting, stool, and more significant rashes over the body have been observed recently,” said Dr Shrey Srivastav, MD (Internal Medicine), Sharda Hospital.

He also alludes to dengue hemorrhagic fever, haematuria (blood in urine), hematemesis (blood in vomiting) as “some other recent trends noted over the last couple of years.”

“We can’t correlate the onset of such changes to Covid-19 but in the last couple of years, cases of dengue with severe complications have increased,” said Dr Srivastav.

Focus on adequate hydration and making lifestyle changes that will help in protecting you from mosquito bites (Source: Pexels)

Is there a link between Covid-19 and dengue?

“Dengue and COVID-19 co-infections were not uncommon during the pandemic years. Dengue fever is not expected to present with respiratory tract symptoms like runny nose, cough or sore throat. The presence of these symptoms in a laboratory confirmed case of dengue fever would prompt additional testing for COVID-19 and Influenza.” says Dr Devashish Desai, Consultant of Infectious Diseases Ruby Hall Clinic Pune.

He adds that the two conditions have “diametrically opposite features” — while COVID-19 causes low lymphocyte count along with a tendency of blood clot formation, dengue causes increased lymphocyte counts and a tendency to bleed.

Treatment

Dr Desai says, “The advice for both patients remains the same. COVID-19 patients are to be managed only symptomatically as long as their oxygen saturation remains more than 94%. Hypoxia would require hospitalization.” The one common aspect in the treatment of both illnesses would be that antibiotics are to be avoided and not taken casually or over the counter by patients as it would contribute to the antimicrobial resistance crisis, he adds.

Do home remedies work?

“Goat’s milk, aloe vera, papaya leaf, uncooked turmeric are some of the popular home remedies people use to treat dengue,” says Dr Prabhat Ranjan Sinha, adding that she strongly tells his patients not to use these as they cause gastroenteritis and induces feelings of nausea. If a person is already unable to take fluids, vomit inducing foods would not help them, he adds.

“Instead, they should focus on adequate hydration and making lifestyle changes that will help in protecting themselves from mosquito bites. Putting oil or kerosene in stagnant water and using mosquito nets are definitely more helpful measures,” Dr Sinha says.

“I would suggest against using home remedies that you see on social media, as patients do not know the consequences of taking them in unprescribed quantities, says Dr Srivastav.

“People have been known to drink banana and papaya juice, crushing green leaves and drinking their juices. But that might lead to a potassium imbalance within the body, or cause liver and kidney injuries as they don’t know the right portion to take them in,” he adds.

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