PAPAYA LEAVES FOR TREATMENT OF DENGUE FEVER

My friend Fatihah requested for young papaya leaves from the herb garden this evening. Her hubby might have dengue fever but the result is not known yet. It seems that drinking a concoction of the boiled blended leaves will promote a faster recovery. Here is hoping that the test result will be negative.

Papaya leaf juice to treat dengue fever


Published: 5 July 2013 9:28 AM

The papaya fruit is a great source of vitamins A and C, but its leaves hold the possible answer to treating dengue fever.

According to Yahoo News, a group of Malaysian researchers have found that juice extracted from papaya leaves helps increase the platelet count in patients with dengue fever.

Dengue has plagued Malaysia since 2002, with a whopping 20,000 case reported last year. All doctors and nurses can do at the moment is provide treatment - known as supportive treatment - to manage the infection in patients.

This means that a person suffering from dengue fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever will only be treated with either fluids or blood transfusions, to manage the symptoms of the disease. Unfortunately, this type of treatment does not always work.

All that may just change with this discovery. Led by Dr Soobitha Subenthran, a team from the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur discovered that the 'carica papaya' leaf juice helps increase platelet count in patients with dengue fever. Their results were published in March, in an Egyptian-based medical journal called, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, published by Hindawi Publishing Corporation (see website).

Carica Papaya is a fancy name for the typical papaya tree you see growing all over Malaysia. The team tested the juice to make sure that it is safe for human consumption. They then worked with teams from the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang to conduct clinical trials on 228 patients with dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Half of the patients received 50 grams of fresh papaya leave juice for three consecutive days while the rest received standard treatment.

While the treatment was administered, the team studied the patients' blood count for two days.

They found that the platelets in the blood of the patients that received the juice had increased significantly.

The breakthrough in this government-funded research is important because previous attempts to find a cure for dengue faced many obstacles, including having to deal with mutations of the virus. “It can be concluded that the administration of 'carica papaya' leaf juice in dengue fever is safe and does induce the rapid increase in platelet count. - July 5, 2013.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/papaya-leaf-juice-to-treat-dengue-fever/#sthash.IlNojiz0.dpuf