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Probe alleged dengue cure claims, says expert
Set up a top-level committee to probe claims of dengue cures, urged an expert yesterday, as this viral disease rampaged through the country sending 19,000 to hospital and nudging the death toll to 50.
Claims of cures for dengue are being spread like wildfire through the media, both print and electronic, with in-depth interviews and some even placing prominent advertisements, pointed out Consultant Paediatrician Dr. LakKumar Fernando who heads the Centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, Negombo.
The need of the hour, according to Dr. Fernando, is to set up a committee headed by an impartial and independent, eminent person like a judge who could be assisted by experts including doctors, ayurvedic physicians and well-known scientists to look into these claims thoroughly.
He was fearful that men, women and children may resort to these so-called untested cures and not heed the strong advice of the health authorities that after the second day of fever, the patient should be taken to hospital as dengue is endemic in the country now.
“This may result in unnecessary and preventable deaths,” cautioned Dr. Fernando, especially if a man, woman or child is having Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) which would cause fluid leakage and if untreated send them into shock. Dengue patients who walk into a hospital should not go out in a coffin is the current thinking and this has been proven by many hospitals which have scrupulous dengue management and monitoring systems in place.
The authorities, therefore, are duty-bound to set up a committee to which all those who are making claims of dengue cures must mandatorily be made to submit their claims along with proof, he said, arguing that if in fact Sri Lanka has a dengue cure it would be a major breakthrough not only for the country but also the world.
However, if such claims are bogus and it is proved by in-depth investigations that these opportunists are doling out such ‘treatment’ and duping gullible people either to make a quick buck or to gain fame, then punitive action should be taken against them, he added.
Comparing the alleged dengue-cure scams to the Sakvithi scandal, Dr. Fernando charged that people were being fooled, by a practitioner in the south, to pay as much as Rs. 2,500 for a bottle of ‘something’ which was said to cure dengue.
Dr. Fernando is qualified to bring this to the notice of the authorities as the Centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, Negombo, has a zero-death record since it was set up in July 2013.
Having learnt the lessons of clinically managing dengue the hard way in Thailand, he has been waging war on this dreaded disease, attempting to bring down the death toll across the country.