Doctors slam WhatsApp home remedies for Nipah
Chethan.Misquith@timesgroup.com
Mangaluru: 25.05.2018
Boil six leaves of night-blooming jasmine (parijatha) in 200ml of water and prepare a 100ml kashaya. Add black pepper powder and three drops of lime juice. Consume the mixture thrice or four times a day; consume honey with onion extract regularly. This is one of the ‘home remedies’ against the Nipah virus (NiV) doing the rounds on social media.
While researchers are yet to find a cure for the deadly virus, messages on the ‘power of Indian herbs’ has caught the attention of social media users, especially WhatsApp.
“These home remedies should be condemned outright,” said Dr Srinivas Kakkilaya, a consultant physician. “Nipah is a serious infection involving the brain and it causes encephalitis. Such patients need immediate hospitalisation and intensive care. Most patients require artificial ventilation until the virus subsides.”
Kakkilaya claimed only one antiviral drug has proven effective so far. According to newspaper reports, the Kerala government has procured 2,000 such tablets and has ordered for another 8,000 tablets.
Dr Edmond Fernandes, CEO, CHD Group, also rubbished the home remedies. “Let alone any home remedy, there is no treatment for NiV,” he said. He urged the public not to believe such messages and refrain from circulating them.
“The messages circulating on social media and also the promotion of alternative forms of medicine to cure NiV must be ignored,” Fernandes said. “Any development of illness during such times is best attended to by the medical community only.”
Ayurvedic doctors, too, said there is no treatment as yet for NiV. “Any medicine has to satisfy certain criteria to be released in the market. There is no treatment for NiV in Ayurveda as yet,” Dr Gautham Alva of Alva’s Ayur Care said.
Chethan.Misquith@timesgroup.com
Mangaluru: 25.05.2018
Boil six leaves of night-blooming jasmine (parijatha) in 200ml of water and prepare a 100ml kashaya. Add black pepper powder and three drops of lime juice. Consume the mixture thrice or four times a day; consume honey with onion extract regularly. This is one of the ‘home remedies’ against the Nipah virus (NiV) doing the rounds on social media.
While researchers are yet to find a cure for the deadly virus, messages on the ‘power of Indian herbs’ has caught the attention of social media users, especially WhatsApp.
“These home remedies should be condemned outright,” said Dr Srinivas Kakkilaya, a consultant physician. “Nipah is a serious infection involving the brain and it causes encephalitis. Such patients need immediate hospitalisation and intensive care. Most patients require artificial ventilation until the virus subsides.”
Kakkilaya claimed only one antiviral drug has proven effective so far. According to newspaper reports, the Kerala government has procured 2,000 such tablets and has ordered for another 8,000 tablets.
Dr Edmond Fernandes, CEO, CHD Group, also rubbished the home remedies. “Let alone any home remedy, there is no treatment for NiV,” he said. He urged the public not to believe such messages and refrain from circulating them.
“The messages circulating on social media and also the promotion of alternative forms of medicine to cure NiV must be ignored,” Fernandes said. “Any development of illness during such times is best attended to by the medical community only.”
Ayurvedic doctors, too, said there is no treatment as yet for NiV. “Any medicine has to satisfy certain criteria to be released in the market. There is no treatment for NiV in Ayurveda as yet,” Dr Gautham Alva of Alva’s Ayur Care said.
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