Papaya Leaf Juice as Cure for Dengue Fever

I just saw a friend's "share" on Facebook today on an article about papaya leaf juice saving a patient who was critically ill with dengue fever.

I should have written about this episode earlier but now is as good a time as any.

My own daughter came down with dengue fever in the first year that we moved to Ipoh. Our house was built on virgin land, and all around us was still plenty of empty land filled with large shady trees, tall grass and shrubs. Peaceful and green yes, but also abuzz with wildlife, including mosquitoes.

It was of course harrowing when the diagnosis was made that my daughter had dengue fever. We admitted her into hospital straightaway and she was started on the drip.

At the same time, my maid (bless her) told me that back home in Indonesia, they would drink papaya leaf juice to cure dengue fever. I was game for anything. I have never had any aversion to traditional or folk medicine in the first place.

So at home, my maid plucked several papaya leaves, washed them with tap water and pounded them to squeeze out its bright green juice. Several leaves just yield one or two teaspoonfuls of juice.

We fed them to my girl. We mixed some honey into the juice because it is extremely bitter!

I can't remember what my girl's platelet count was that first night. But it was of course low. Some time after taking the juice it was  time to do another blood test. Her platelet count starting climbing up! She was discharged after 2 days.

We don't know the exact dosage of the juice to consume but my maid said just to drink as much as you can!

After my little girl recovered, I was also asking around on how to strengthen her ("poh" in Cantonese) general health after this episode. I was given advice by our insurance agent who herself recovered from dengue fever.

I was told to buy 2 frogs from the market and 3-4 small bitter gourds.

Double boiled frog and bitter gourd soup

• Clean the frog meat and cut it into medium-sized pieces. 
• Wash, remove the seeds and thinly slice the small bitter gourds. 
• Arrange the bitter gourd and frog meat in layers into a double boiler. 
• Add a small bowl of water and double boil it for about 1.5-2 hours. 
• Add some salt if you like (you may also add a few pieces of goji berry/ wolf berry and Chinese red dates)
• Drink the soup once a week for several weeks after recovery.

Dengue is rampant in this part of the world and there is yet no absolute prevention against it. But God has given us natural ingredients to counter it. I hope this traditional knowledge will help.

There are many other testimonials about the efficacy of papaya leaf juice: dengue-fever-remedy, Top7 natural remedies for dengue, why-pawpaw-leaves-juice-cures-dengue-fever.

>>>  I am updating my post today as I came across another folk remedy for dengue which sounds simple and interesting, and backed by testimonials.

One Filipino remedy is to use a common weed that we can find in Malaysia. It goes by many names - tawa tawa, snake weed, gatas-gatas, patikan - and it looks like this. I am sure you will recognise it instantly. You will probably have battled to pull it out of your lawn or crevices in your cement sidewalk or driveway.

The recipe for the tawa tawa tea can be found at tawa-tawa-dengue-treatment. I have copied it here:
• Take 5 to 6 whole Tawa Tawa plants. Cut off the roots
• Wash and clean
• Fill a pot with clean water
• Boil the Tawa Tawa for one minute in a slow rolling boil
• Cool
• Let the dengue fever victim drink only the Tawa Tawa water for 24 hours
• Sip 1 to 1.5 glasses of Tawa Tawa water every hour

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The Institute for Medical Research in KL recently carried out research into the papaya leaf juice folk remedy, publishing their findings in March 2013, in an Egyptian-based medical journal called, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Hindawi Publishing Corporation.

“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. It may play a valuable role in the management of dengue fever in the near future,” the Malaysian team wrote in their concluding remarks of the paper.

The news link for this report: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/papaya-tree-leaves-a-way-to-cure-dengue-062124867.html

(images from wikimedia.org and http://mui25.blogspot.com/2011/07/remedy-for-dengue-fever.html)