Govt department finds natural treatment for dengue

The Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine has found that solutions from boiling of papaya leaves can increase platelets for dengue fever and save lives of sufferers, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said on Sunday.

Jirapong Songwatcharaporn, a deputy spokesman of the ministry, said there was no medicine for a direct cure of dengue that caused the number of platelets of patients to plunge before the fever went away.

In several cases, dengue patients could suffer from shock and die, he said.

Jirapong said the department’s Phen Hospital has found that administering solutions from boiled papaya leaves could replenish declining platelets, thus reducing the severe symptoms of the disease and preventing deaths.