Treatment of Malaria - An Overview.
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Sep / Oct Vol III No 5.
Sastry G L N.
Cases.
` Ars / Nux-v / Sep / Ceon / Puls / Chin / Nat-m.

Editor: Dr. GLN Shastry, renowned senior homoeopath of Andhra Pradesh, has been earlier interviewed in 1993 in the NJH. A lot of younger homoeopath students have great faith in GLN Shastry. He is also the originator of the (vaccine) of Homoeopathy, as I have mentioned in Vijaywada seminar report. Through the cases described wisdom, gained through years of deligent single dose homoeopathic practice.

Amongst the several homoeopathic drugs,China and Natrum-mur have been found to be most effective in the treatment of a typical malaria. Drugs like Sepia, Ars, Ipecac, Nux-vom have been founds suitable in cases which were irregular in type along with accessory symptoms for the atypical presentation. Deep acting remedies like Sulph, Calc, Lyco, Tuberculinum and other miasmatic drugs have been found to be useful to eradicate the tendency to relapse and to raise the immunity.

In managing cases of malaria the homoeopathic physician must collect the relevant data and then select the remedy on the basis of the concept of totality of characteristic symptoms. Often data collecting is not an easy task, even for the experienced. A desire for immediate relief often drives the patient for quicker alternatives.

Management of fevers with homoeopathy is an art. To master this it is necessary to find out as to which to the following categories the patient belong to:

1. Suffering due to natural cause.
2. Cases already treated with allopathic drugs.
3. Cases already treated for sometime with homoeopathic drugs.
4. Cases which have received mixed kind of treatment.
5. Cases suffering with sequel or suppressed states after the previous treatment.

Once the patient has been classified in either of the above five categories, the treatment plan is decided accordingly. More often than not we get cases which point to two or more remedies. In such cases, it is essential to antidote the picture of the earlier drug. Nux-vomica or Ars-alb should be given to patients who have been treated with allopathic drugs and later give the remedy based on the symptom similarity.

Deep acting drugs or a nosode may be followed with as an inter-current or a complementary drug for final cure.

CASE 1:

A 35 year old farmer had malaria and was treated by ayurvedic medicine without relief. He then took allopathic treatment of quinine, again without relief.

He had a typical picture of malaria with paroxysms in the afternoon. It started with chills, rigors and fever ending with drenching perspiration. The chills and rigors came from 1-2 p.m. and passed to fever stage at 3 p.m., lasting till 8 p.m. followed by sweat. He used to feel hungry after the paroxysm but could not relish food.

This orderly nature was continuing since the onset of the disease. He had become pale, anaemic and was weak.The orderliness of the case suggested China 200 and the paroxysm had been relieved in the orderly manner i.e. time, duration and intensity of symptoms in a weeks time. Later he was given a dose of Sulphur to prevent any recurrence.

Similarly in some cases where the intensity of paroxysm is found in the morning or forenoon is found in the morning or forenoon with the same orderly manner - Natrum-mur is the remedy. The time of the paroxysm is the criterion for selection along with associated symptoms.

CASE 2:

The palliative: A 12 years old boy suffered from malaria which was malignant in nature with gross enlargement of spleen and liver and with severe Anaemia. He was given Ceonanthus in lower potencies which helped him to survive for a considerable period.

CASE 3:

Changing paroxysms and erratic rise of temperature upto 108 F were the characteristic features which led me to prescribe Pulsatilla 200, to cure an established case of malaria.

For irregular types of cases which are already treated with allopathic drugs - Ars-alb, Nux-vom or Ipecac meet the acute stage and is to be followed with a deep acting remedy. This will clear the case, and throw up the picture of the indicated remedy.

Nux and Ipecac are to be thought of in cases with accessory symptoms like nausea, biliousness and rectal symptoms.

CASE 4:

A newly married lady had malarial fever which was treated by a homoeopath without relief. She was suffering on and off with malarial paroxysms. Later she had abortions thrice in the fourth month with occassional malaria with enlarged liver and spleen and jaundice. She became pale and anaemic. At this stage she was prescribed Nux-vomica 200 followed by Sepia 200 which relieved her of the complaints including hepatosplenomegaly. In all cases spoiled by previous homoeopathic treatment Sepia is the drug of choice.

CASE 5:

Mr. R.P. aged 36, came with complaints of slurred speech, increased salivation, face expressionless and bradykinesis since one month. It was diagnosed as Extra-pyramidal reaction due to Domstal administration.

Taking the case history on 15/5/94, it was found that the patient had Mumps five weeks ago. Two weeks later he also had intermittent fever (? Malaria) with chills and rigors followed by loose motions and vomiting and was prescribed Domstal - an anti-emetic by local allopath.

Although the patient turned afebrile under allopathic medication he developed extra-pyramidal reactions which were later confirmed to be due to Domstal.

After having tried many allopathic physicians in vain he switched over to homoeopathic treatment.

I took the case and found no peculiar symptom except for reduced planters and DT reflexes (3+). Therefore I decided to start treatment with Arsenic as it could prove useful in such suppressed states.

Treatment: Arsenic-alb 200 one dose was given on 29/6/94. On his next visit, that was five days later there was a considerable improvement in his condition. The tremors decreased and salivation was also less. SL was continued for a month. Another dose of Arsenic-alb 200 a month later brought a remarkable change in him. He was relieved of his excessive salivation by more than 80 percent, with further improvements in his movements and facial expressions. The patient and the attendants were extremely happy as now he could even drive the car and attend office.

Conclusion: In this case as well as in another case which is still under observation and follow up, the prescription was based on my previous experience. The common feature in all such allopathically treated cases is suppression. Kent in his lectures on Arsenic-alb says that it is the remedy for constitutions that have gone through blood poisoning of some kind, either poisoning from dissecting wound or from erysipelas or typhoid fever or any other zymotic states improperly treated or poisoning with quinine and like substances. Arsenic is one of the medicines that will confirm to the anaemic state that follows such suppression.

So, from the above discussion and case studies, we can conclude that Arsenic-alb shows distinct effects on varied pathological entities: whether the changes are due to iatrogenic effects or suppressions. And this view of Kent has been time and again confirmed in my 40 years of practice and experience. It will pave the way for the final selection of the curative remedy.

I would also like to suggest Tuberculinum as a broad spectrum prophylactic especially in cases of intermittent fevers and malaria.

Dr. G.L.N. SASTRY
Hyderabad -. 500 380.