Homeopathic Remedies for Chikungunya and Dengue
Chikungunya and dengue are viral diseases spread by mosquito bites. While chikungunya and dengue are transmitted from the aedes aegypti mosquito, recent report from the Pasteur Institute in Paris claims the mosquito mutated and now can also be transmitted by aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito). The name chikungunya is derivative of the Makonde word meaning ‘that which bends up’ with reference to the stooped posture developed resulting from the severe arthritic symptoms of the disease.
Symptoms of Chikungunya
Sudden onset of flu-like symptoms including: severe headache, chills, fever higher than 40°C or 104°F, joint pain, backache, nausea, vomiting, petechial or maculopapular rash usually involving the limbs and trunks. Joints of the extremities in particular become swollen and painful to the touch. Conjunctival infection and slight photophobia, redness of eyes may be the first symptom with perhaps a difficulty in looking upward.
Symptoms of Dengue
Sudden chills with high fever, intense headache, muscle and joint pains which make one immobile. Retro-orbital pain and photophobia develops within 24 hrs of the onset of preliminary symptoms. Other symptoms include: extreme weakness, anorexia, constipation, colicky pain and abdominal tenderness. Some cases fever is typically followed by a remission for 2 hrs to 2 days. The rash may be diffuse flushing, mottling, or fleeting pinpoint eruptions on face, neck and chest during the first half of the infection and a conspicuous rash that may be maculopapular or scarlatiniform on 3rd or 4th day. Fever may last for about 5 days.
Homeopathic Treatment
Pertinent individual treatment is the heart of homeopathy. Rather than administering medicines geared toward the disease, homeopathic treatment targets the disease based on symptoms which vary from person to person and also to the degree they are present. That is one reason why it is near impossible to develop any random controlled trails in homeopathy. But, over the years, experience has taught the homeopaths that in cases of acute epidemics – the symptoms are essentially same and so can be treated with one remedy or few key remedies.
The best prophylactic remedy is to find the ‘Genus Epidemicus’ of the area of the outbreak. And a homeopathic remedy such as this is not an individual constitutional remedy, but a general one that fits the highest number of symptoms of the affected group. Though the remedy is not individual specific it is still different from the conventional allopathic medicine as the cure is from the inside out – addresses the cause, rather than outside in – suppressing the symptoms.
Calcarea carbonica as a genus epidemicus is an effective remedy which can be used to treat chikungunya and one of the best prophylactic remedy to treat it is bryonia alba. Tabacum is a prominent remedy identified to treat dengue by studying several atypical symptoms of dengue – vertigo when opening the eyes, incessant nausea, anxious conscience, desire for constant fanning, body coldness etc.
When the availability of treatment during viral epidemics is meager, costly or not known, homeopathic medicines as genus epidemicus can be used as prophylactic remedies or remedies to treat the incidence of chikungunya and dengue.
