If the rising dengue numbers have been a bitter pill to swallow for the Health Department, they’ve decided to combat it with another pint of bitter. To help patients with viral fevers like dengue recover faster, the State has decided to supply papaya leaf juice, hill neem juice (malaivembu) and nilavembu kudineer at all government-run hospitals and PHCs. “We are not blindly turning to Indian medicine,” explained Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan, “Not only have our Indian researchers documented that these juices can boost immunity and blood platelet counts, it has even been established by allopathic doctors,” he added.
Though the juices are not meant to be a ‘cure’, they will go a long way in helping with the symptoms of viral diseases, “Even allopathic medicine can only treat the symptoms and not kill the disease. These juices have been documented as being good against viral diseases,” said the health secretary.
Health Minister Dr VS Vijay, Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy and the Health Secretary formally launched the scheme that was devised by the Health Department last week. “We will be extremely careful and correct dosages as prescribed by our Indian medicine specialists will be given to the patients. All the juices will be given alongside the allopathic treatment,” said Vijay.
Talking about how these traditional kashayams and juices are to be supplied en masse, Saidai Duraisamy interjected that all of them were available in abundance in any Siddha medical store, “Though we are supplying the juice twice a day through a van at the moment, we have asked at the district Siddha medical officers to procure the medicine and establish production locally so that they will be self-sufficient,” added the health minister.
Before they visited the dengue ward to hand patients the first batch of juice, they tried the murky green and brown fluid themselves. Despite being extremely bitter, it is to their credit that none of them flinched while downing a small glass, “We were brought up drinking this when we were sick, You can really get used to it,” said Vijay.