‘Spin doctors’ invent dengue’s cure

While scientists across the globe are struggling to develop a vaccine against dengue virus, homeopaths and local laboratories, claiming to have invented drugs for dengue’s prevention and cure, are advertising and selling the “invented” drugs at various city pharmacies, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to an estimate, dengue outbreak has affected millions of people in different regions of the globe, with countries like Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, India and Pakistan on the hit list. Countries like Philippines and Sri Lanka have been fighting the deadly virus for decades and have taken revolutionary steps to cope up with it. A global effort is going on to develop a vaccine to prevent the deadly epidemic with scientists in various countries working on the project. However, pharmacies near all major public and private hospitals and in other parts of the city are selling drugs to “prevent and cure dengue”, capitalising on people’s credulity and fear at large.
“I’ve bought preventive drops for dengue for Rs 250 and our entire family has taken drops. Someone told us that only four drops each could prevent dengue,” said Saad Cheema after buying dengue preventive homeopathic drops from a pharmacy near Ittefaq Hospital.
A pharmacist confirmed that such medicines were available to prevent dengue, also pointing towards another capsule of Schazoo Laboratories, whose poster claimed that the dengue prevention was possible now with the use of calcium and vitamin D3. To a question, he said there was no need to even consult a doctor to use the drops as they were not harmful at all. However medical experts rejected that a vaccine was available anywhere in the world. Some doctors believed that a vaccine would come from Malaysia in 2012, while other dispelled the image saying the vaccine has not passed even PC1 trials.
Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Dr Javed Akram said it was ridiculous if anyone claimed to have come up with a vaccine for dengue, as it had not even passed the PC1 stage worldwide. He further said any available drug would be a polyvalent vaccine and would not be effective because there were four types of viruses and any vaccine to prevent dengue should prevent all four types. Mayo Hospital Microbiology Head Dr Tayyaba said many homeopaths introduced different medicines claiming it to be the cure for dengue however, doctors could not prescribe any medicine without conducting proper clinical trials as per international standards. She said unchecked sale of such medicines was tantamount to putting several lives at risk.
DSS DRUG IMPORTED: Dextran 40 percent, the life saving intravenous infusion of choice for Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) patients, hitherto unavailable in Pakistan, has been imported under the guidance of the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and is available at Jinnah Hospital. In a statement issued by the hospital spokesperson, the medicine was now available for free at the Jinnah Hospital’s pharmacy and would be used to save lives. Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Professor Javed Akram said that in the absence of Dextran 40, DSS treatment was difficult. The foreign experts currently visiting the city also advised the drug’s use for DSS.