Speak out: Cure for dengue?
By Bernardo Rocha Calibo
Director, National Police Commission 7

THERE is hope that the dengue scourge will be
obliterated.  

I was in a meeting in Manila recently with other Napolcom officials.  While waiting for my flight back to Cebu, I happened to talk with friends.  The conversation eventually turned to dengue.  Some of their statements shocked me.  I called up the persons concerned and they confirmed these revelations.  

Computer technician Wenceslao Salesale Jr. , 27, was downed by dengue.  His platelet count plunged from 180 to 80.  He was rushed by ambulance from Novaliches to Manila.  Inside the ambulance, a relative, acting upon the advice of a missionary priest, made him drink soup made from camote tops.  The following day, his platelet count was normal.  

Dengue attacked the 7-year-old daughter of engineers Mar and Lita Budlongan of Kaloocan City.  Her platelet count read 80.  The same treatment was used.  The following day she was back to normal.  

The 15-year-old daughter of businessman Nepomuceno Salaga of Sampaloc, Manila had a dangerous platelet count of 80 due to dengue.  The same treatment was followed.  The following day she was back in school.  

I asked a doctor of medicine about herbal cures and he said that many, if not most, medicines come from plants.  He also said that under the Hippocratic Oath, doctors are bound to encourage anything that can cure a patient.

Research

We need not do research deep in the rainforests of the Amazon or venture into the ocean depths in search of the elusive cure for dengue.  It is right there in the backyard.  

The following information is from Wikipedia:

"In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet
potatoes to other vegetables.  Considering fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value.  According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato (NCSPC). "

". . . Sweet potato tops are excellent sources of antioxidative compounds, mainly polyphenolics, which may protect the human body from oxidative stress associated with many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases.  Sweet potato greens have the highest content of total polyphenolics among other commercial vegetables studied.”  

"Sweet potatoes contain protein, dietary fiber, lipid, and essential minerals and nutrients such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, aluminum and boron.  Sweet potatoes are also important sources of vitamin
A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid."

Camote

In the case of Salaga, he bought five sheaves (bugkos/bigkis) of camote cuttings.  Each sheaf consists of about 12 cuttings.  Each cutting measures about one foot.  A sheaf costs about P5.  

Camote tops are boiled in water to extract the juice.  The boiling lasts for about five minutes.  A little salt is used to give flavor to it.  The patient is made to drink slowly and gradually.  The body's immunity system is thus revived, making dengue helpless against the body's natural defenses.  Camote enables the body to heal itself.  

Now you know why I earlier said that my friends' revelations shocked me.  

They were shocking because people are needlessly dying all around us from dengue, while their very cure is also all around us.  

In the past, many were fond of using the derogatory statement, "Go home and plant camote. " Now, camote is big news.  It can save lives.  What could be bigger than that?

So, to fortify your family against dengue, "Go home and plant camote!"

(Engr.  Lita Budiongan and Mr.  Nepomuceno Salaga personally related to me their experiences with their respective daughters.  I asked their permission to use their names. )