Dengue fever

[AngelsLariat]

There is no herbal or other remedy shown to "cure" dengue.

There have been some reports if possible benefit from papaya leaf extract for people whose platlet counts are low (a minority of dengue cases) but these are very limited. Only study published in a peer reviewed journal had a sample size of 1 -- ONE -- case. Enough to conclude it is worth studying, no more than that. And it did not show a "cure", just an improvement in the platlet count.

But I think no harm in drinking papaya leaf extract if you want to. It won't speed up the cure but it is possible it will help avert or mitigate a drop in platlet count...which as mentioned, does not happen to the majority of people (and especially not foreigners) with dengue anyway.

I do think that the level of hysteria around this is a bit out of proportion. In most Western countries there are regular outbreaks of influenza which is also miserable to have and can be fatal for some people.In Thailand, this seldom occurs, but you do get dengue outbreaks.

The case fatality rate for simple dengue is 0. For properly managed hemorrhagic dengue (in itself a small minority of total dengue cases) , it is under 1%.

It's certainly no fun, but it is not something to get panicked about.

Let me understand this, a herbal cure is suggested by a forum sponsor as being benefical in the treatment of Dengue and you accept this and support it with a study of one as being something that is worthy of more research. Yet a thread that reports on a study of 1.5 million statin users and the implications of statins on diabetes , the results of which are published in the BMJ, is deemed to be inappropariate, You know, it's actually quite hard to understand wjust what the rules are here because they don't seem to follow what's written and they certainly don't follow any logic.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-statin-linked-diabetes.html

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/641752-statins-increases-risk-of-diabetes/

Actually it was Papaya Leaf Juice that was said to have been subjected to a study with sample size of one. But that's not what the sponsor is selling, Papaya Leaf Juice is something that was mentioned earlier in the thread by someone who did not appear to have a vested interest in the subject matter.

[FolkGuitar]

Would you like me to send you my medical records?

FWIW, the reason that I went to the hospital for tests was that one night I started to develop ear pain that was preventing me from sleeping ....

Oh... Now why didn't you say that in the first place! No wonder the doctor ordered a blood work-up.

I'm glad that you made a full recovery.

[AngelsLariat]

Would you like me to send you my medical records?

FWIW, the reason that I went to the hospital for tests was that one night I started to develop ear pain that was preventing me from sleeping ....

Oh... Now why didn't you say that in the first place! No wonder the doctor ordered a blood work-up.

I'm glad that you made a full recovery.

C’mon, you started out claiming that there was no such thing as a mild case of dengue and mocking people who had mild symptoms on the basis that if they don’t get tested then they don’t know that they have dengue, and then when someone with relatively mild symptoms does get tested you ridicule the idea that a person with mild symptoms would go to see a doctor. There can be any number of reasons that a person would go to get tested, and even if you disagree with the person's reason for getting tested that doesn't invalidate the test result. As a "medical professional" you should know better than that.

Edited July 5, 2013 by AngelsLariat

[FolkGuitar]

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and he reader who doesn't get it.

I'm just glad you made a full recovery.

Edited July 5, 2013 by FolkGuitar

[Sheryl]

I got dengue approx a year ago. A mild case compared to most, only lasted a week. My fault, I had some standing water under plants in the house and I did notice mosquitos around. Here are my symptoms as I remember them:

- early evening I started feeling a bit punk, not sick, just "off". I normally sip on beer in the evenings and have the odd shot of straight scotch now and again. That evening I could not stand the idea of drinking beer at all, I just had a few sips of scotch and went to bed fairly early.

- next morning I felt like shit. My gf was worried but I told her to go to work, I was fine, I did not want any company, just to be left alone. By 10am I was stuck on the toilet sweating bullets from all parts my body. I was stuck on the toilet for about 3 hours, and the bathroom floor around me was totally soaked, I could not move, body was burning up like an oven set on HIGH. I wanted a thermometer to check cause I was sure my high temp would blow it off the end, no thermometer tho. Bowels were just passing water, explosively (this continued for the next 3 days).

- for 3 days I had no desire whatsoever for any food. I only drank water, a lot of water. My eyes could not stand bright lights or even being outdoors in the daylight (this sensitivity to bright lights lasted for almost a week). Minor aches and headaches, chills and sweats off and on, I slept a lot.

- afternoon of 3rd day I started to sip on some mild tea, progressed to soup broth, 4th day started eating small amounts of food as symptoms were rapidly diminishing, by day 7 I was not only fine but I felt better than I have in years, let me explain...

I have had sensitive/loose bowels (mild case) for the past few (~6) years, and a mild case of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis that has persisted for at least 8 years which is likely what caused the bowel symptoms. When I was sitting on the toilet for 3 hours I got the strong impression that the extremely high temperature my body was experiencing was burning off the candida (yeast) in my bowels. I refused all medication my gf brought me and stuck with my high intake water flush and hoped that I was right about my high temp burning off the candida and the water flushing it out of my system. After 3 days I also drank quite a bit of my gf's Bai-Ya-Nang juice she makes fresh daily, that could have helped my quick recovery, no way of proving that tho.

I was right!

From day 7 to now (+ 1 year later) my body has not felt this good for at least 10 years if not longer. Normal bowels (90% of the time) and I feel great. I am 65yo.

Sometimes there is a hidden gem in what on the surface would seem to be a negative experience. Let your body do the talking and learn to listen to it is the message I got from that experience. Life's obstacles often carry hidden opportunities if approached properly. IE:

Doug

There is no connection between Dengue fever and dysentery, or chronic bowel syndromes; diarrhea or dysentery are not common symptoms of Dengue.

There is no such thing as a "mild-case" of Dengue. In fact, unless the poster had his blood-platelet count monitored, and confirmed it followed the typical cyclic variation of Dengue, it is unknown if he had, in fact, Dengue. The time-line of some of his self-described symptoms match well with classic "Dengue" pathology; others do not.

~o:37;

Note: edited by Moderator to remove insulting comments and discussion of moderation

Some unwarranted accusations were edited from Orang's post.

He is however correct in stating that diarrhea and other bowel symptoms are not a usual feature of dengue, and I too am incluned toi suspect that what ThaiHerb experienced may nit have been dengue but rather some type of gastroenteritis, these can at times be accompanied by high fever.

As to the debate about whether there is such a thing a s"mild" dengue I think that has already been addressed. There definitely is a wide clinical spectrum of with dengue, from mild to quite severe. The term "mild case of denguie" is understood to mean a dengue infection in which the clinical presentation was mild. Perfectly legit.

[Sheryl]

multiple threads on dengue in different forums have been closed in favor iof a single thread in the Health forum. Please post any further comments/questions here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/652479-dengue-outbreak/