Dengue

Dengue

Aedes aegypti Mosquito

This article is dedicated to all the people who have suffered from Dengue Fever.

7/27/23
Dear Friends,
I was not aware of dengue fever two weeks ago, but I am sad to say that it was forced into my awareness when my daughter and two granddaughters caught dengue fever while vacationing in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. I am writing this article from a hospital room in San Jose, Costa Rica, where my daughter has been staying for six days, fighting for her life. She has won the battle. I attribute her survival to an intelligent use of a combination of Western Medicine, Homeopathy, and Herbal medicines. All of these working together was the ticket that enabled my daughter to survive Severe Dengue. Unfortunately the homeopathy and the herbal medicine had to be employed under cover in the hospital setting, rather than used openly.

This article is somewhat complex to write, as I want to include known facts about Dengue, as well as chronicle my daughter’s experience with it. This article will have four parts.

Part one is partially plagiarized from a Youtube video, entitled: Dengue Fever : Dengue Fever Clinical Presentation, Pathogenesis, Diagnostic Methods, Treatment & Management¹

Part two is a day by day chronicling of what my daughter Nastassia,  and her daughters,  Ixara nine years old,  and Sephyra four years old experienced.

Part three is Nastassia’s description of her disease and the hallucinations she experienced. This section is titled “Nastassia Meets the God of Dengue.”

Part four is helpful tips for dealing with and avoiding getting dengue.

PART ONE: SOME FACTS ABOUT DENGUE

Dengue is the most common and important arthropod-borne viral disease in human beings. It is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, which is also responsible for transmitting Chikungunya, Yellow Fever. and Zika.² (I believe that Veratrum album is potentially a very important remedy for Zika based on the description in Frans Vermeulen’s Prisma about the deformities that can be caused to animals grazing on this plant. )³

Another arthropod-borne disease, which has had a huge impact on humanity throughout history is malaria. The vector for malaria is the Female Anopheles mosquito.

The difference between the two diseases is that dengue is a virus, and malaria is a parasite. There are medications to treat malaria in Western medicine, but none to treat dengue. The mosquito that transmits dengue is active during the day, while the vector for malaria is active from sunset to sunrise. It is more probable to die from malaria than from dengue.

The pathogenesis of dengue is that a mosquito bites an infected human, then becomes infected, and when it bites another human for a blood meal, it infects the host.⁴

Two species of Aedis mosquitoes are the vectors for dengue: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Dengue is distributed in tropical and sub-tropical areas and most recently in more temperate areas. Dengue is the biggest health concern in the Philippines. There has been a great increase in cases of Dengue Fever in Costa Rica in 2023. Dengue is now being reported in tropical areas of the United States.

In 2019 dengue was named as one of the top ten threats to world health. 100 to 400 million people are infected by dengue each year, and 500,000 people require hospitalization. A very large proportion of the cases are in children. The mortality rate for Severe Dengue is between 2.5% and 5%, and approximately 20 to 25,000 children die each year from this disease. ⁵

Description of Aedes aegypti. This is an intensely black mosquito distinguishable by its pointed abdomen and two white stripes in the shape of a lyre on its back, and white bands on its legs.

Symptoms of Dengue

The symptoms of dengue can range from a mild-flu like illness to a severe life threatening disease, called Severe Dengue, which was previously known as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. ⁶

My granddaughters had the mild form, though it could have gone into the severe form for the older one had she not had homeopathic treatment. My daughter, Nastassia, had the severe form. I had never in my life witnessed a disease as serious as this.

The Dengue illness is characterized by:

Coagulopathy, which is a condition in which the blood’s ability to coagulate is impaired. Coagulopathy may cause uncontrolled internal or external bleeding. Left untreated, uncontrolled bleeding may cause damage to joints, muscles, or internal organs and may be life-threatening.

Increased vascular fragility and permeability. If not closely managed Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever DHF can progress to hypovolemic shock.  Hypovolemic shock is an emergency condition in which severe blood or other fluid loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body. This type of shock can cause many organs to stop working.  In dengue it is known as Dengue Shock Syndrome DSS.

Four serotypes or different viral strains have been identified for dengue. Infection by one serotype gives lifelong immunity against that particular serotype, however secondary infection with another serotype can cause Severe Dengue and DSS.  In areas where dengue is prevalent, people know that the second time one gets dengue, it can be much more serious than the first time around. The mechanism for why this is the case is not exactly understood. A person can be infected by all four serotypes.

The incubation period is four to ten day. Following onset symptoms last from two to seven days on average, and many patients are asymptomatic. One in four people with dengue infection become symptomatic. This is in keeping with the homeopathic concept of susceptibility.⁷

Nastassia and Her Family Just Prior to the Illness.

Nastassia estimates that she and her daughters got sick five to seven days after the mosquito bites.

Symptomatic dengue infection commonly presents as a mild to moderate, non specific, acute febrile illness. One in twenty patients with symptomatic disease develop Severe Dengue. Most of the time these patients have a history of a prior dengue infection, though in my daughter’s case we have not identified a prior dengue infection.

There are three phases of the clinical course of a dengue viral infection: the febrile phase, critical phase and convalescent phase.

Febrile phase: In the febrile phase high grade fever is the predominant symptom. In addition the patient may complain of severe headaches along with retro-orbital pain, severe arthralgias or joint pains. severe myalgia or muscle pain, bone pain, and macular or maculopapular rash. In addition the patient may present with nausea and vomiting and mild hemorrhagic manifestations, like petechiae , purpura, bleeding gums, epistaxis or bleeding from the nose, hematuria or blood in the urine,

My daughter had all of the above symptoms, except for the blood in the urine, but her menses came a week early, and it was the heaviest menses of her life. The homeopathic remedies my daughter received in this phase were Eupatorium perfoliatum 200C, followed by Mercurius virus 200C and China officinatlis 200C. These remedies were flown in to Santa Teresa by a friend who was traveling from San Jose to Santa Teresa, and were received by Nastassia on Day 3 of her illness.

Other symptoms in the febrile phase are anorexia, sore throat, altered taste sensations and lymphadenopathy.

Nastassia experienced severe taste sensations. The most dominant sensation was of fireworks going off in her mouth. Taste would be so intense, that she would have to process it for a minute before she could take the next bite. She became afraid of food. What it felt like in her mouth was the taste of tart, astringent and sweet all at the same time. Food also tasted rotten. She was afraid to eat any fruit except for papaya. The effect of anything that had a strong flavor was overpowering in her mouth. “I experienced sensations of shooting off all over my mouth going in different directions. Often it was so unbearable that I would have to spit out whatever I was attempting to eat.” Nastassia became anorexic. She attributes this to the fear of eating food, because of the intensity of the taste and fear of nausea.

As the patient reaches the late phase of the fever phase, the fever starts to abate. This is known as defervescence. This is due to the cessation of viremia (the presence of viruses in the blood). However some patients may show warning signs of progression into Severe Dengue, as was the case for Nastassia.

The Warning Signs of Progression into Severe Dengue.

These signs begin to appear at around the time of defervescence:

Persistent vomiting
Severe abdominal pain
Fluid accumulation
Mucosal bleeding
Difficulty in breathing
Restlessness
Postural hypotension
Hepatomegaly (abnormal enlargement of the liver).
Progressive increase in hematocrit (the ratio of the volume of red blood cells to the total volume of blood).

Nastassia did have most of the above symptoms, including the hepatomegaly. The remedies we gave to Nastassia in this phase were Phosphorous 1M, Phosphoric Acid 1M and Aconitum napellus 30C. Phosphorous is a hemorrhagic remedy, and Phosphoric acid is the burnt out state of Phosphorous. I used these remedies to try to control the blood loss and to help with the severe dehydration. Aconite was given when Nastassia went into a frantic, anxious and desperate state with fear that she was going to die.

Nastassia did have persistent vomiting on Days 3 and 4, but she only vomited mucus. An ultrasound showed us that the fluid accumulation did not affect the heart and lungs. There was some fluid accumulation around the liver and spleen, which were both enlarged.

Nastassia did experience restlessness. She was unable to get comfortable, and tossed and turned in the bed. Any part of the body that made contact with the bed would be in pain. Most of the pain was in the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and upper and lower back.

The Critical Phase

“This phase begins after defervescence and typically lasts 24 to 48 hours. Most patients clinically improve during this phase, however patients with considerable plasma leakage can develop Severe Dengue within a few hours.

In these patients fever starts to reappear. This pattern is called Saddleback fever. Increased vascular permeability is the cause of extensive plasma leakage in these patients. Due to the plasma leakage blood volume starts to drop, which ultimately results in hypovolemic shock. (Hypovolemic shock is an emergency condition in which severe blood or other fluid loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body. This type of shock can cause many organs to stop working.)

Due to the plasma leakage, patients may have conditions like pleural effusion or ascites (the accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, causing abdominal swelling). Due to the reduced blood volume the patient may have hypotension (abnormally low blood pressure), tachycardia (an abnormally rapid heart rate), tachypnea (abnormally rapid breathing), reduced level of consciousness, hematemesis, (the vomiting of blood), GI bleeding, and Hematuria (the presence of blood in the urine), the latter symptoms contributing to reduced blood volume. All of this can lead to hypovolemic shock.”¹

 Uncommon manifestations of Severe Dengue include

Hepatitis
Myocarditis
Pancreatitis
Encephalitis

Nastassia may have had encephalitis, as this can be a cause for the hallucinations, which Nastassia experienced from Day 6 through to Day 7.

The Convalescent or Recovery Phase

During this phase, the blood volume tends to stabilize by reabsorbing extravasated fluids into the blood stream.
Hemodynamic status stabilizes (of or relating to the flow of blood within the organs and tissues of the body.)
Hematocrit stabilizes or may fall.
White blood cell count starts to rise
Increase in the platelet count.

In the convalescent phase, Nastassia’s body reaffirmed Constantine Hering’s Law of Cure. ⁸ Everything proceeded as Constantine Hering predicted it would as the patient improved in health.

On Day 6 Nastassia began to relive every symptom she had experienced from the moment she first got dengue, beginning with the pains in the feet, the  body pains, the hot and cold sensations, and the fever with icy coldness and vomiting. All the while Nastassia was experiencing hallucinations. She was unable to sleep due to the hallucinations and pain. She did a complete retracing of all of her symptoms in one day. Nastassia says that this was the hardest day of her illness.

In the final stage of the disease Nastassia broke out in an itchy rash that covered her entire body. She was told by her doctor not to scratch, because this could lead to a staph infection. Nastassia was extremely frantic in this stage. She was on antihistamines to try to control the itch, and make her a little more comfortable. I raised her to Aconite 200C at this point, because of the panic and frantic state she was in, along with the fear of death. We continued with room doses of Phosphorous 1M. Nastassia was told by her doctor that she would need to be on antihistamines for an entire month, but she only remained on them for three days.

Nastassia’s platelet count was at 25,000 when she was first tested in the clinic in Santa Teresa on Day 5 of her illness. It dropped down to 9,000 on Day 6 when she was tested in the hospital in San Jose. Due to the extremely low platelet count Nastassia was given a transfusion of platelets, which ordinarily raises  the level by 5,000 platelets, yet the next morning Nastassia’s platelet count went up to 26,000. The doctor commented that this means that she was improving on her own beyond the assistance provided by the platelet transfusion. On Day 8 the platelet count rose to 44,000; on Day 9 it went up to 66,000; On Day 10 Nastassia’s platelet count reached 104,000 at which point she met the criteria for being able to check out of the hospital. The normal platelet level is 150,000.

The Western Medicine Treatment of Dengue Fever

Dengue Mosquito CDC – James Gathany

There are no specific anti-viral drugs available to treat this disease.
Supportive care is advised.
Patients are urged to stay well hydrated.
Patients are advised to avoid aspirin and other NSAIDS (Ibuprofen), because they have anti-coagulant properties.
Acetaminophen (Panadol) is recommended to control fever. In Costa Rica what was given was Paracetamol, which is known as Acetaminophen in the United States. It is the same thing as Tylenol.
Tepid sponging is recommended to help reduce the fever.
Patients are advised to avoid mosquitoes to reduce transmission.
Close observation and frequent monitoring to prevent the patient from developing hypovolemic shock.
For Dehydration IV Fluid administration may be required.

Nastassia received all of the Western medicine protocols, and they made a big difference in keeping her alive. Nastassia required more than thirty IV bags during her hospital stay. This help with hydration was crucially important. She was also drinking six to seven 1 liter bottles of water per day.

The platelet infusion was beneficial and so were the antihistamines administered when the illness moved out onto the skin. Most helpful was being in a hospital setting, where Nastassia was looked after with care and love by the doctors, nurses and staff.

PART TWO: Chronicling What My Daughter Experienced

I am a homeopath and am very interested in a detailed cataloging of the symptoms that my daughter and granddaughters experienced, because their experiences can potentially help other people in similar situations. Other homeopaths and doctors can perhaps develop a better understanding of how to treat this disease from these notes.

This documentation can add to the materia medica of the Aedis mosquitoes and its serotypes, so that this highly destructive insect born virus can be better understood. Homeopaths can add this additional information to the materia medica of the Aedis mosquitoes or the Dengue nosode. When added to our repertories and materia medicas people with similar symptoms may find a similimum in this remedy. I dedicate this article to all who have suffered from this terrible disease.

Here is a Day by Day Account of Nastassia’s Illness.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/19/2023:

“I got the attack yesterday. It started with me being freezing cold, but I was burning to the touch. I had pain in the knees, ankles and legs. The pain was in the bones. I was freezing and restless. I couldn’t get comfortable.” (Eupatorium perfoliatum, a well known remedy for influenza with bone pains.)

“I wanted heavy blankets wrapped tightly around me. I haven’t wanted to move, unless I have the restless attacks.” (Bryonia alba – a remedy well known for aggravation from motion, particularly in acute and traumatic conditions. Many people considered this to be one of the principal remedies for the treatment of COVID19).

“I haven’t been able to walk. I get nauseous if I walk. It has been hard with the kids.

It got bad. I was spread out on the bed, uncovering then covering back up. I was totally miserable.”  (Mercurius  and its salts are well known for illnesses where there is a problem regulating the temperature. The patients covers one moment and uncovers the next. There is often a strong toxic vibe when this remedy is indicated).

“I am having a sensation of needing to put the pieces of my body together. ” (Baptisia – This is a classic Baptista symptom, but it did not fit the rest of the case). “It is so interesting where my mental state has been. I can’t think about things. I have been in a trance where it is hot and then cold. My mind is going in circles around the body. I was in this temperature realm.” (This may have been the start of indications of brain inflammation, which became quite severe a few days later).

“It got to this culmination yesterday at 6 p .m. I started crying, freaking out, completely hysterical. The temperature  issues, the pain in the legs, and the pain in the head behind the eyes was torturing me. It was so bad in my legs and ankles. Ixara (Nastassia’s nine-year-old daughter) massaged my ankles and put me to bed. I was able to sleep for a couple of minutes.

I woke up many times to pee and drink water. I threw up a tiny amount. Jimmy (Nastassia’s husband) has five friends who have dengue right now in the same town.

It has been hard to get comfortable especially if I move my legs. I want to keep my arms tucked under my body. I do best if I lie on my stomach. ” (Phosphorous – this is one of the keynote symptoms that brought me to Phosphorous, which was ultimately the remedy that helped Nastassia the most).

Notes for Nastassia on 7/20/23:

“My fever lowered. It is now 38.6° Celsius, (101.5° Fahrenheit) .  It had originally been hovering around 39.5° Celsius, (103° Fahrenheit). I started to sweat with a horrible sour smell.

My long distance vision has gone blurry and I am scared about that.  It is how my eyesight used to be  before I had laser surgery. Loss of vision is an uncommon potential symptom of dengue. I am terrified of having permanent eye damage. It feels like the whole disease moved to the head. The body pains are a little better. The fever is down a little bit. I am still a little cold. Sleeping definitely ameliorates. The longer I am awake, the worse I feel. I am hungry, but nauseous. I have a horrible taste in my mouth and a horrible smell. ” (According to Hering’s Law of Cure this is the wrong direction for the symptoms to move. The symptoms are moving from below upward, which means that her health is getting worse). It sounds like Nastassia entered the stage of defervescence, but that the disease is advancing.

Remedies from Costa Rica

Jimmy was able to get remedies I requested from San Jose, Costa Rica. A friend flew them to Santa Teresa and delivered them to Jimmy. This was already on Day 3 of the disease for Nastassia.

These were the first batch of remedies that we tested for Nastassia. The brand is Formula Magistral. If you wish to learn about how I administer remedies, please read the following two article on my website:

How to Take Homeopathic Remedies ⁹
The Pillow Dose, The Pocket Dose, The Room Dose ¹⁰

Testing the remedies is a spiritual process. I meditate everyday and am Self-realized, meaning that I have realized the indwelling God, whom I call Atman. To test a remedy for a client I make myself a pendulum and ask Atman whether this remedy and potency is good for the client. Atman replies in yes, no and neutral. When the answer is a yes my body bends forward at the waist. If it is neutral my body does not move. If it is a no my body moves backward, or I take a backward step. My prescriptions are not made by the ego. The ego studies, analyzes and researches the information, but the final prescription transcends the mind and is made by the higher power. Atman is my constant partner. Atman is everyone else’s constant partner as well. Everyone has the potential to partner with Atman in their work and to practice homeopathy with Divine assistance.

7/20/23

Test
Eupatorium Perfoliatum 200C yes (This is the first remedy recommended in the Banerji Protocol for dengue fever. It makes sense, because it is a great remedy for acute illnesses with bone pains).
Bryonia alba 200C no
Phosphorous 200C no
Mercurius vivus 200C no
China officinalis 200C no (This is the number one remedy for malaria, and for ailments from loss of vital fluids).

First remedy given:
7/20/2023 Eupatorium Perfoliatum 200C 12 liquid drops in 4 oz. of water and drink the whole thing. Keep the vial under her pillow. Nastassia received the remedy at 2:00 p.m. Costa Rican time.

After one hour Nastassia called to complain that the Eupatorium Perfoliatum 200C was not helping. She wanted to take Mercurius vivus 200C. She has a metallic taste in the mouth. It appears, however, that the Eupatorium Perfoliatum may have helped some, because the bone pains were not as bad.

The second remedy given:
7/20/23 Mercurius vivus 200C 12 drops in 4 oz. of water and drink the whole thing.

Continuing on 7/20/23

Not a drop of energy. Weakness with the fever.
She feels like her back will break.
She has been lying in bed for three days. It is very hard to get comfortable.
Coughing.
“Eyesight is worse. Long distance blurriness. I can see seven to eight feet. Past that faces become blurry. It is disorienting to have my eyesight like this. I can’t make out shapes.
I am cold. I am covering myself with every blanket in the house.”

Analysis:
Gelsemium does not have ice coldness with the fever.
Aconite does not have fever with bone pains.
Belladonna does not have bone pain in the legs.

Continuing on 7/20/23

Fever is now at about 103° Fahrenheit: (39.44° Celsius)

Retesting remedies later in the day on 7/20/23:

Test
China 200C good (This remedy is well-known for ailments for loss of vital fluids, and is one of the principal remedies for the treatment of malaria).

7/20/23 China 200C 12 drops in 4 oz. of water at 8 p.m.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/21/23. They had to move from the Airbnb they were staying at to the one next door while Nastassia was in this condition.

Nastassia  got her period one week early, but she thought that she was bleeding blood, and was panicked about this. “ It looks like pieces of sand, not like healthy red blood. It is not like a normal period.”

“My energy is zero. For me to do the tiniest thing I have to muster the energy and lie down for a few minutes. I stood up and almost passed out earlier. I walked to the living room and collapsed on the couch. I can’t keep my eyes open. Drowsy and dosing in mid sentence. the idea of doing anything is great effort. ” (Gelsemium – except Gelsemium does not have the bone pains).

“My eyesight is getting worse. Jimmy was five feet away from me and I didn’t see his face clearly. I have pain in the eyes if I move them. I feel like I am a little better, if it weren’t for the eyes and my energy.”

From the very first moment of this illness I had major floaters, a major ocular migraine. Some look like a long worm, others look like a constellation,

My legs are feeling good.
My extreme chilliness is better. I didn’t freeze last night.
My body pain is better.
My nose bled a little this morning.
I feel like my muscles are getting broken down.
I just ate this pomegranate that tastes disgusting. I haven’t eaten anything in days. I will slam myself with superfoods berries, oranges.
My fever is down a little bit. It is 38.6 degrees Celsius , (102.2 Fahrenheit) now.
I am very thirsty. I got up to drink so many glasses of water.
I vomited just mucus a bunch of times.”

Notes for Nastassia on 7/22/23:

“I had a night from hell. I felt severely dehydrated all night long. I drank 2 gallons of water and electrolytes. We are in a black out. I shivered all night long.

My eyes are so bad. Now my vision is worse than it ever was when I wore glasses. I can’t see the phone. My eyes are related to my brain and it is making me go crazy. With the eyesight like this, it is like being on a psychedelic journey that doesn’t end.

My throat hurts. I am drinking so much. I can’t swallow.
I woke up twenty times in the night to drink and pee. This is the hardest night yet.
My face is swollen.

I have a recurring dream theme of drinking water. I see mazes and labyrinths of cups of water. I have totally unclear partial dreams. I go back into the cups of water, if I wake up in the night. I am also dreaming of Aztec snakes.

Yesterday I soaked through 2 maxi pads. My period is a little browner than usual. Today it seemed like it had gone away. My periods are always light, so this is very unusual for me.”

Jimmy  says that Nastassia’s mind is bad. She is having panic attacks. We need to calm her down.Nastassia was very afraid to go to the clinic. “I have never had a blood test before. In India it was a stool test. The trauma with the Cipro in India affected me.”

At this point we insisted that Nastassia go to the hospital. The hospital is six hours away in San Jose. In the meantime, Jimmy took Nastassia to a clinic in Santa Teresa, where we were told that Nastassia’s platelet count was at 25,000, which is a critically low level and that she has to go to the hospital right away to get a blood transfusion. A normal platelet count is 150,000. Jimmy drove Nastassia to the hospital, which included a four hour ferry ride on the journey.

Jimmy was very upset that we had not given Nastassia the local treatment on Day 1, which is Paracetamol, another name for Tylenol. I also regret this, though I do not know whether it would have made any difference in the course of the disease as Nastassia experienced it. As homeopaths we are taught to believe that it is dangerous to bring down a fever with pain reducing medications. This was the big lesson that we learned from the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 to 1919, where Bayer Aspirin caused many deaths.¹¹ In the face of what I observed with Dengue Fever, I am not positive that this guideline applies.

Under ideal circumstances homeopaths and allopaths would come together and learn from each other and respect each other. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were cooperation between these two magnificent systems of medicine. The weaknesses of one side would be compensated for by the strengths of the other, just as what takes place in a well functioning marriage. It takes maturity and an ability to put ego aside for two people in a marriage to be able to understand the point of view and humanity of their spouses. We have not reached this point of maturity in the healthcare world.

Nastassia definitely had benefit from the remedies she had taken so far, but she was still in a terrible condition and her platelets were at a dangerously low level. Jimmy was extremely alarmed by Nastassia’s condition and so was I, so I booked an airplane to fly to San Juan, Costa Rica from Mountain View, California, where I live.

Before driving to the hospital, we changed Nastassia’s remedy to Phosphorous 200C.

7/22/23 Phosphorous 200C 12 drops in 4 oz. of water and drink the whole thing.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/23/23:

I am in Costa Rica with Nastassia at Cima Hospital. Her doctor’s name is Dr. Ferdinand Marcos. The nurses are all beautiful and sweet, and the doctors handsome and charming. The hospital is very nice.

Nastassia’s vision is still very bad. She can only see faces if they are a few inches in front of her. She has lost a lot of weight. They did an ultrasound while I was here. She has fluid in her organs, but it is not too bad. There is no fluid on the lungs and heart. There is fluid in the kidneys and gall bladder. The amount of fluid is not excessive, which is good news.

They are going to test her platelets later today. Her temperature is normal.
She has a skin rash on her face, neck and chest.
Her lips are swollen and she has a crack in the center of the upper lip.
Her nose is chafed/excoriated on the inside and outside.
She has black stools.
She perspired very much last night. She wetted her whole nightgown. That was the second major sweat since she got ill.
Nastassia’s blood pressure is 102/72. Everything is good with the heart.
Nastassia can walk to the bathroom, but doesn’t have strength to walk in the hallway.
Nastassia’s MRI is showing that the spleen and liver are enlarged, which is consistent with Dengue.

The doctor requested an ophthalmologist to come and see Nastassia. The ophthalmologist reported that he could see nothing that was a problem. He expected Nastassia’s eyes to improve in the next few days.

Nastassia’s Chart of Symptoms for Dengue on 7/23/23 (The last remedy was Phosphorous 200C)

Better since yesterday. Improved after the bags of IV and Paracetamol drip. The remedies are helping too.

Everything is better across the board except the eyes.
Dehydration
Nausea
Headache
Weakness is so much better. Yesterday I was trembling. I couldn’t walk without holding onto someone.
Fever is gone.
Swallowing is better.
Muscle soreness is better today.
Sore back is better today.
Extreme thirst is better today.
My mind is better. I was so disoriented. It was so scary yesterday.
She broke a sweat last night.
The horrible smell that she couldn’t shake is a little better today.
Everything tasted rotten.  She had a sensation of fireworks in the mouth. I had to convince myself to take a few bites. Better today.

Symptoms that are the same:

Rash and redness on hands, face, chest, neck.
Black stools are the same.

Aggravated:
Period is still going on and bleeding strongly. This is the third day. My periods have been so short, so easy, so painless in recent years. This is unusual.

My lips are worse. They are bothering me.

Homeopathic Remedies Used for Severe Dengue for Nastassia.

7/23/23 Phosphorous 1M and Phosphoric acid 1M pillow dose,  Aconitum napellus 30C

Notes for Nastassia on 7/23/23 continued:

The hips and the knees and feet are driving me crazy. Stretching my feet ameliorates. Any part of my body that touches the bed is painful. My back feels like it is full of knots. I also have pain in the left elbow. It is total soreness, but it is not deep in the bones like before.

The dengue started with pain in the, back, hips, knees and back of the ankles. This pain returned now on Day 5 of the dengue.

The pain is wandering from one location to the next.
I am shivering.
I have severe menstrual cramps.
Food tastes rotten again.
I feel like I am returning to an earlier stage of the illness.

7/23/23 Removed Phosphoric acid 1M and Aconite 30C after 2 hours. Phosphorous 1M is remaining.

At 11:36 p.m. they started the transfusion of platelets. Before that the wandering pain in the legs, back, etc. stopped, and then it moved to the fingers. So symptoms are changing around.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/24/23:

On this day Nastassia experienced severe hallucinations. Nastassia will describe the visuals later in the article.

Now Nastassia’s symptoms started to exteriorize, which means that the inner disturbance started to move out to the skin. In homeopathy we recognize this as the last phase of a febrile illness. Nastassia’s doctor in the hospital called it the last phase of dengue when the skin manifestations start to come out.

Nastassia had an extremely difficult time during this phase. There were times when she became very anxious and did not feel she would live through it. Dr. Marcos recommended antihistamines to manage the itch and rash during this phase. Nastassia tried to resist this, but we had no choice. The suffering was tremendous.

Nastassia’s entire body was covered in a purpural rash. (a rash of purple spots on the skin caused by internal bleeding from small blood vessels.). She had swelling of the extremities, and extreme pain and tenderness in her feet.

We used ice packs on Nastassia’s legs and feet to try to make her comfortable. “The ice is helping me and also torturing me.”

Nastassia has been wanting to be in the shower. It gives relief from the itch. She had an IV with an antihistamine in it.

Nastassia is behaving desperately and again going into the fear of dying.

The wandering itch is severe.

Nastassia now has the following remedies in her energetic field:

Mercurius vivus 200C room dose for half an hour, because of the heat alternating with the cold and the wandering itch. This is the first time that Nastassia tested positively to this remedy during her illness.

Aconite 30C room dose, because of the panicking behavior and fear of death.

Phosphorous 30C, 200C and 1M room dose.

Within twenty minutes of these remedies Nastassia calmed down. The antihistamine also helped.

The intensity of the last three hours was through the roof. I feel like we went through another crisis.

“I hallucinated the entire night. I ended up meeting the God of Dengue. At first it was nice like pretty fractals and patterns and Aztec Designs. Then It got weirder and darker, with animals morphing into each other, and humans transforming themselves. The visuals were on a tiny scale. I couldn’t sleep because of the hallucinations.”

Notes for Nastassia on 7/24/23 at 5:30 p.m. (continued):

The level of franticness has gone up very high. This comes in waves.
Burning feet stopped.
The wandering itch is still there, but less.
Nastassia has a rash on her entire body. The rash is accompanied by a stinging sensation.

When the intensity of the itching went really high, Nastassia became frantic again. At this point we raised the potency of Aconite to the 200C and removed the 30C. We continued with the other remedies we were using in the room dose method. Nastassia continued with IVs, Paracetamol and antihistamines.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/25/23:

Nastassia slept.
She is looking and feeling much better today. She is on the mend.
Her skin is still stinging very badly.
Nastassia’s vision is now almost normal.
She is back to her happy self. We have our Nastassia back.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/26/23:

Nastassia saw the ophthalmologist yesterday and he could not find anything wrong. Her vision tested at 20/20.
Her platelet count is up to 66,000.
She is feeling well, but still needs the antihistamine for the itching.
Her legs are extremely red and she has a bad smell from the feet.
The feet are also swollen and painful to walk on.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/27/23:

Nastassia is continuing to improve. The purpura on her lower legs is improving. The bottoms of her feet are still very tender.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/28/29:

Nastassia is continuing to improve. The rash on her lower legs is improving. The bottoms of her feet are still very tender.

Notes for Nastassia on 7/31/23:

Nastassia’s skin is now back to normal. The sore feet have resolved. We went on a two hour hike in a nature preserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica and Nastassia did very well. She has recovered.

8/2/23 I have been giving Nastassia pillow doses of Phosphorous 1M for half an hour each morning to help her recovery. Today was the last day. I have also been giving her the following vitamins: Activa Naturopathic Supplements and Performance Lab NutriGenesis Multi Vitamin for Women. Nastassia had severe bruising and pain in her arms due to the IV’s, platelet infusion, and frequent blood draws. We used Ledum palustre cream and Arnica montana cream to help with this.

8/7/23 Nastassia is back in Calfornia now. She still has low energy and her mind is not as sharp as her usual state, so I gave her Phosphorous 1M 8 pellets in 4 oz. of water.

10/7/23 Nastassia is complaining that she still is dealing with dengue symptoms. Her soles and ankles are achy and have a dull pain. She has to wear special shoes to deal with the pain. She has not recovered from the mental effects of dengue. Her mind is not sharp. She cannot do concentrated work, such as her taxes, which she could have done easily before.  She tests 20/20 on her vision, but she thinks there is something going on with the brain, because her vision is off. I gave Nastassia  Staphysagria 200C  to expel the mosquito energy from her and for suppressed anger. Two months later Nastassia reported that she felt well on this remedy.

PART THREE: NASTASSIA MEETS THE GOD OF DENGUE

Image Generated with Midjourney

This is a transcript of Nastassia’s conversation with her brother, Andrei, where she told him about her experience of dengue.

“I fought a heroes battle and I won. I fought the God of Dengue. He showed me what he is made of. I showed him what I am made of. The God of Dengue knows he can’t have me. He is trying to torture me one last time.

I hallucinated the entire night. I ended up meeting the God of Dengue. At first it was nice like pretty fractals and patterns and Aztec designs. Then It got weirder and darker with animals blending into each other, and humans transforming themselves. The visuals were on a tiny scale forming repeating patterns. I couldn’t sleep because of the hallucinations. I did not not like the energy of them. I could not make them stop. There is something like a portal or hole in the world where the hallucinations emanate from.

Basically throughout the course of the entire sixth day and night of the illness, I replayed the entire week of dengue backward fast. Every single symptom, everything. It was pretty intense and hard core.

There is a lot of insect vibe.  Then the visuals got larger and weirder and darker. Eventually after a while the visuals became mosquitoes, very animal and primal. The colors were beige, black and white, and gray scale,  except for Navajo-like patterns that would come up in full color.

Then finally after a long time I essentially meet the God of Dengue. I need to honor him. He is forcing me to honor him. I have to recognize how powerful and strong he is and what he can do. I recognize your power. Sure you have got the power, but you can’t have me.

I battled with the God of Dengue. It was a battle of wills, a battle of endurance. The whole thing has been a battle.

The entity Dengue is masculine. Testosterone, ego, power, cruelty, death, torture–it is a representation of all of these things. I had to withstand its power and be stronger, so that it couldn’t take me.

In one moment the visuals changed to a panoramic movie where this God is showing me the history of dengue. This was before I had to honor the God.

He showed me the history of Dengue which began at the beginning of creation to the present.  It was completely different from all the other visuals. It wasn’t patterns melting into each other. It was like scenes being played out.

After I stood up to him, of course, he didn’t want to let me go. He has just been torturing me. I still have the visuals. I still haven’t slept.

Ernst Haeckel Specimen of Radiolaria marine protazoa

After I said no you can’t take me, the visuals went from the micro to the macro size. There is a huge orb I am inside the orb. Now everything is in black and red, no more grays. Every time I blink, the hallucinations are back.

Then there is another me, but with long hair and pig tails. She is a copy of me. She is standing next to my bed with a control board. She is trying to work all these knobs. Then I say she is not me. Then she is lying on the bed and looking at me. I won’t let her fool me. Then I have to say no to the hallucinations and refuse to sleep and close my eyes, because I don’t want to get abducted and probed from closing the eyes. I tried not to give it any attention or close my eyes since the morning.

I get what dengue is about. It is totally about torture. This is the essence. It tries to break you the entire time from the minute you get it. It gets to play with you for a week. The norm is that you get it for seven days and then it is done.

It tortures you in every way, every aspect you can think of. It goes into your mind, all around your body. Now I am in the last phase of it. Now the itching is torturing me.

In the last phase when it knows it doesn’t get to take you, the God of Dengue’s last hurrah, is to give you this terrible body rash and make you itch everywhere. You can’t scratch, because if you do you can break the skin open and give yourself a staph infection.

You think it is going to last a week and taper off, no it keeps getting more intense. I am in the last hurrah. It is so hard core.

It didn’t finish, if I close my eyes I still have hallucinations. They are bigger now. I am now hallucinating people. I refused to close my eyes. I stepped out. I declared myself a winner. Now when I close my eyes there are a lot of beings and they are large. I haven’t slept a wink.

Convulsing, screaming, crying, shaking, puking. I have had a few little rests here and there, but the rests aren’t long before the next issue comes up.

It will play with pain. It moves it here or there. Any part of my body that would touch the bed was in excruciating pain. Since the beginning of the whole dengue it is always different where the pain is. The issues started with the feet and ended with the feet. My feet are burning hot. I have been wanting to put them on an ice pack.

I don’t know how much a human being can take. It is pretty insane. It is like literally being in a torture chamber for a week.

I laughed through it. Crazy dark, mosquito God. In the meantime I got the platelet transfusion in the middle of the night. It took hours. It wouldn’t pass through the catheter or my veins, because it was too viscous.

They couldn’t get the transfusion in after attempting for two hours. Finally the nurses went syringe by syringe into the port and slowly pushed the platelets in. All this time I was joking, laughing. I was trying to hide all the pain and hallucinating. I didn’t want to be given drugs.

It took my eyesight. Not a drop of goodness. It takes anything it can get its hands on, like a mosquito. It tortures you just to mess with you as much as possible.

I am a fighter. Not that I have a choice. I wasn’t going to let that asshole Dengue take me. I have been so desperate so many times. I am using so much concentration and willpower not to succumb to my itches.

From what I understood about Dengue, it represents an aspect of masculinity, the aspect that will kill for pleasure. It will be the entity that would torture the prisoners for fun. The King of the Syphilitics.

Then there is also this evil, wicked sense of humor, with the wandering pains, one thing after another. You think you are getting better, then boom you are worse.

I hope this is the last day. Maybe my eyes won’t get better, but everything else will.

Note: On day eight Nastassia’s vision is showing significant improvement.

Today the visuals haven’t been evil, they have been a lot softer, more patterns and I am seeing people. At one point I was in a place with a lot of friends.

When I opened my eyes I couldn’t get rid of the vision of him. His presence was known clearly. The visuals were overpowering, intense, scary, I wanted to get the hell out. They were repetitive and horrible. Everything was highly psychedelic, but dark, not realms that I want to be in.”

Even now as I look up at the ceiling I see highly complex hieroglyphics, that are sitting on water and waving. They are not like Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is like scenes from the history of dengue.

Today the itching was so bad, I had to stay in the shower for hours. I was looking at the tile in the shower. The sand and crystals in the tile were moving and going into each other.”

This gives you a flavor of what Nastassia had experienced.

PART THREE CONTINUED: DENGUE IN NASTASSIA’S CHILDREN

Sephyra

Ixara and Sephyra in Monteverde after Dengue

Note for Sephyra,  age four, on 7/19/23:
Sephyra is developing symptoms of Dengue. She feels very cold, and is complaining about ear pain.

Notes for Sephyra on 7/20/23
Sephyra has symptoms of a cold and fever
She has symptoms of a vaginal infection, with white leucorrhea.
She feels hot and cold at the same time.
Her throat hurts when she swallows.
Her ear only hurts if she pokes it.
“I am worried about Mommie.”

Tested
Phosphorous 200C no
Mercurius vivus 200C yes

Remedy given on 7/20/2023 Mercurius vivus 200C 5 liquid drops in 4 oz. of water and drink the whole thing.

7/21/2023 Sephyra slept through the night. She is much better. She had a rash come out a few days later on her chest, but she never itched and it was short lived.

8/2/2023  Phosphorous 1M pillow dose. This is Sephyra’s constitutional remedy, and since her acute illness is over, we felt it would be good for her to get back on her constitutional remedy.

Ixara

7/20/23 Ixara, age nine, caught dengue. She is hot and cold.  She is starting to cough. She is not talkative.
Her fever is progressively getting higher. She is very moody, touchy, quick to anger, and desperate.
“I am very very hot.
My head hurts. It hurts less when I am laying down, but it still hurts a lot.
My eyes hurt.
I am tired, because I didn’t sleep last night.
I almost threw up because I was nauseous.
Last night my entire body hurt.”

7/20/2023 Antinonium crudum 200C 10 drops in 3/4 cup of water. The reason we went with the Antimonium crudum is because Ixara responded well to this remedy for a recent acute illness that she had, which had left a residual cough. She was doing very well on this remedy prior to getting dengue.

7/21/2023

It has been a hard day for Ixara. Her fever is 102.2
Her head hurts.
Eyes hurt like yesterday.
She does feel much better.
She is not really hot anymore.
She vomited yesterday and it made her feel better

7/29/2023 All of Ixara’s acute symptoms improved by 7/22/23. She was doing okay except for her emotional state. She has been touchy and irritable, which is consistent with Antimonium crudum.

In the last three days Ixara has been itching on her legs and feet. This is the last phase of dengue for her when the disease leaves the body from the skin.

7/30/23 The itch and the emotional symptoms are much better.

9/1/23  We moved Ixara to Sepia 30C after an acute illness. She has been doing well on this remedy.

PART FOUR: HELPFUL TIPS FOR DEALING WITH DENGUE:

Take Thiamine or Vitamin B1 for two weeks before traveling to countries where dengue is prevalent, but this is not sufficient protection.

Dengue occurs at altitudes below 1000 meters above sea level. Above that point the mosquitoes that transmit dengue do not live. Take this into consideration when planning your vacation. Malaria does not occur at elevations above 500 meters above sea level. These facts are changing due to global warming.

“Mosquitoes in Costa Rica usually won’t bother you if you’re sunbathing on the hot sand or walking in the heat of the day. But watch out if you are resting under palm trees, hiking on shady trails, or passing by wetlands, ponds, or rivers. Also be extra careful in the morning and evening hours when it is a little cooler outside. We’ve been hit hard when eating at restaurants with outdoor seating. They love to hide out under the tables and bite your legs and ankles.

Mosquitoes are also much more prevalent during the rainy season months of May through November. With more water, they are able to reproduce faster so have higher numbers. Avoiding the rainiest areas of the country can help you avoid bites. Read our Weather post for more information about which areas of Costa Rica receive the most rain.”1

Wear long clothes.

The CDC recommends that you wear an insect repellant with at least 20% DEET. Here is a link to an herbal insect repellant made by Helios Pharmacy in the UK. This contains DEET.¹²

Use a mosquito net if you are in a place that is in not enclosed, so that you can avoid getting bitten.

A Papaya Tree in Monteverde, Costa Rica

Drink Papaya leaf juice. This is what the local people in Costa Rica recommended.This helps to raise the level of platelets in the blood. The juice is very hard to stomach; the extract is much easier.

“Mosquitoes in Costa Rica usually won’t bother you if you’re sunbathing on the hot sand or walking in the heat of the day. But watch out if you are resting under palm trees, hiking on shady trails, or passing by wetlands, ponds, or rivers. Also be extra careful in the morning and evening hours when it is a little cooler outside. We’ve been hit hard when eating at restaurants with outdoor seating. They love to hide out under the tables and bite your legs and ankles.    

Mosquitoes are also much more prevalent during the rainy season months of May through November. With more water, they are able to reproduce faster so have higher numbers. Avoiding the rainiest areas of the country can help you avoid bites. Read our Weather post for more information about which areas of Costa Rica receive the most rain.”⁴

Start with treatment with Paracetamol or Tylenol to reduce the fever. We have now learned that it is important to bring down the fever with dengue rather than let it run its course, because the fever reduces the platelet count. This is counter to what we are taught in homeopathy, but with this disease it is advisable.

My daughter said that the heating pad helped a lot with pains.

Ice helped with the rash and itching, but not sufficiently. Antihistamines were still needed for the itching.

Take Staphysagria 3X as a prophylactic against mosquito bites. I got this information from Frans Vermeulen’s Materia Medica called Prisma, the 2002 edition. I am quoting directly from his reference:

“I have been using the homeopathic preparation equivalent to 1/1,000 grain (3x) and have never found any toxic symptoms. I might also add that in twenty-three years, I have never encountered any toxicity, nor cumulative effect when used in this dosage. I have tried different ways of using the tablets: the most effective being to dissolve them under the tongue at least 1 or 2 hours prior to exposure. The length of time of effectiveness seemed to vary with the individual….When the drug is taken internally it apparently is excreted through the skin and is offensive to mosquitoes. The short period of time it takes to produce the desired result after introduction into the body leads me to believe that it is excreted through the skin instead of changing the chemistry of the body….Resumé of my record of experimental field testing in my practice and acquaintances is as follows: I find that I have used it in 32 states, Puerto Rico and 11 foreign countries with an approximate total of 461 people. It was approximately 90% effective. In many instances it deterred flies and other insects from annoying the patient. This was true of the Mexican flies, the midges in Finland, the little red bugs in Florida, and the gnats and green flies in the Poconos. Staphysagria taken internally is effective in deterring insects, particularly mosquitoes from biting even though they may alight on the body….Those that received bites before taking the medication noted that the pain and the discomfort was considerably alleviated, and the bites disappeared much faster after they started taking the tablets….A number of patients with athlete’s foot reported a definite improvement after taking Staphysagria.¹³

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope that it will be of service in the world.

Wishing you health and happiness,

Deborah Olenev CCH RSHom (NA) and Nastassia Olenev CCH

Bibliography

¹ Quoting From Dengue Fever : Clinical Presentation, Pathogenesis, Diagnostic Methods, Treatment & Management https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muX_VOImW_M

²  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/nyregion/mosquitoes-diseases-zika-virus.html

³ “Veratrum toxins are known teratogens, causing developmental problems with lambs in utero. The problems in the lamb affect mostly the brain, skull and face, and the lambs can be born with a ‘monkey-face’ [protruding lower jaw, underdeveloped upper jaw], or with a single central eye (‘cyclops’) or hydrocephalus, or failure of the head to develop. These lambs are usually born dead or tend to die shortly after birth. Vermeulen, Frans,  Prisma Second Edition, Emryss, 2002 p. 1399.

⁴ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severe-dengue

⁵ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coagulopathy

⁶ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000167.htm

⁷ https://homeopathyforhealth.net/2020/05/18/the-question-of-susceptibility-in-homeopathy/

⁸ http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/schmidt/lawofcure.htm

⁹ https://homeopathyforhealth.net/2016/07/16/how-to-take-homeopathic-remedies/

¹⁰https://homeopathyforhealth.net/2023/02/07/the-pillow-dose-the-pocket-dose-the-room-dose/

¹¹ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002132346.htm

¹² https://www.helios.co.uk/shop/search/category/skin-care/insect-repellant

¹³Trexler, Staphysagria and Mosquitoes, Journal of the Am. Inst. of Hom., May, June 1965

¹⁴ This is a link to an article called Neurological Manifestations of Dengue Fever https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8680870/