Too much information on Internet can become a disaster like this, Ahhh....never realized...

A minute Tiger mosquito would become so much viral in India, nobody thought of. Surprisingly, this mosquito reappeared in India after 32 years. As the mosquito did not affect much population when it firstly entered into India, the Chikungnya caused by the mosquito was not of much research area of interest. Unfortunately, no specific drug or vaccine could be synthesized.

My husband got a sudden high fever of 104 deg C and shivering in his office on Aug 31. We visited doctor and he asked him to get admitted to the hospital immediately for two hours. Until that time, we did not even know how to spell this name Chikungunya and was a kind of new word to us. Instantly, I started surfing about this disease on internet for treatment options, diet, or any other home remedies. These days, thanks to advanced technology that we just can get any information on internet. We feel ourselves smart especially when we get to understand some medical knowledge and start advising or implementing blindly. Every site on internet says no specific treatment for Chikungunya, however consume liquids and Vitamin C for joint pains, along with good bed rest. Almost every site, blog says consume Vitamin C supplements. Being from Life Sciences background, I also thought that the information might be correct as Vitamin C is always good for immune system. Then our family started giving their own tips- mousambi juice very good for health, give lemon juice- would increase immunity, amla-very good, chhaach is a must, and so on. I also blindly started following these tips and all the remedies given on internet. As amla can't be eaten as raw, I started including it in dal, sabzi, almost every dish. My husband used to consume mousambi juice, tomatoes everyday. I used to feel satisfying that diet wise we are going good to fight with this blood infection. Unfortunately, my husband got rashes again on body after 15 days. We thought as this disease can relapse or would take 1-2 months to recover, so this is normal. Then we came to know about Baba Ramdev's interview on a news channel for Chikungunya stating that Ayurveda has some medicines to treat Chikungunya's effects. We immediately visited Ayurveda doctor at a nearby store of Baba Ramdev. And Ahhhh.....we were shocked to know that the rashes reappeared because of the citrus foods my husband is consuming from last 20 days. The doctor said a strict NO to citrus- tomato, amla, lemon, curd, lassi, chhaach, mosaumbi juice. I was like, really believing any fact blindly is always dangerous. No doubt, other remedies like coconut water being good for curing this disease were also there on internet. But I never knew too much information on the internet can be disastrous in this way also.

So, one of my intentions to share this experience is to make all the people suffering from Chikungunya aware that beware of all the information- remedies given on internet. Such information might not have been proved in research. So, please consult good doctors for the diet and also request to the doctors for mentioning list of particular fluids that the patient can consume. However, our doctor suggested to have light meals except citrus and cold; coconut water; and good bed rest.

Copyright...19-09-2016