Is It Possible to Control the Ebola Epidemic?

Is It Possible to Control the Ebola Epidemic? A terrible tragedy struck the western part of the African continent and our desire and believe is to put an end to this nightmare. Since the discovery of Ebolavirus in 1976 in Zaire, now DRC Democratic Republic of Congo, this virus is endemic in this country and has caused a trail of destruction. For years, it has afflicted our brothers mercilessly slaughtering entire families overnight, leaving a crowd of orphans along the way. Today West Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, also live an epidemic of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), the 7th in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the potential to spread to neighboring countries. WHO World Health Organization has worked with professionals from various countries to gather experiences in epidemics, concentrating efforts that can contribute in a practical way to control cases of Ebola, which are already more than 1.400 deaths this year so far, with mortality rates of 60-90%. Summary of the clinical picture of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF): The EHF is an infectious disease caused by Ebola virus, an RNA và ­rus with filamentous appearance under electronic microscopy, diameter of 80nm, incubation period that various between 1-3 weeks. The initial symptoms are very similar to a simple flu, with asthenia, anorexia, headache and myalgia, insidiously progressing to vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, dehydration, shock and death. The severity and duration of disease progression depends directly on viral load Ebolavirus, nutritional status and consequently, the immune status of each patient. In 50% of cases occur a maculopapular rash more pronounced on trunk and abdà ´men, and by the end of the 1st week blood dyscrasias symptoms are observed, such as nausea and uncontrollable vomiting, difficult to control epistaxis, hematemesis, melena, hemoptysis, bleeding conjunctival, skin, mucous membranes, gums, ulcerations of lips. From this point occur rapid progression to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with cardio-circulatory collapse, dysfunction and multiple organ failure and death occurs. There is no specific medication for treatment of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), only supportive measures to control hypovolemia, fluid and electrolyte replacement, blood, plasma or platelet concentrate transfusion, vasoactive drugs. The most frequent and common is the clinical and epidemiological diagnosis, The safest laboratory diagnosis is the identification of Ebolavirus by viral isolation in culture to identify the serotype, or by polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription (RT-PCR) for sequencing of viral RNA. Contagion occurs primarily by direct contact with fluids, secretions of the patient as urine, blood, semen, sweat, saliva, or fomites and personal belongins contaminated with Ebolavirus. IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) and deaths from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever? Undoubtedly, and we’ll explain some points needed to understand well this interrelationship. The work developed focusing on dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever and epidemics, was the theme in 2006, of masters thesis Homeopathy in Public Health: Contribution to the Study of Epidemics, in Post-graduation in Health Sciences of the Medical School of Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto, Sà £o Paulo SP, Brazil. In 2002 the World Health Organization WHO launches the document Strategy of the WHO about Traditional Medicine, which in Brazil resulted in the administrative rule MS/GM No. 971 of June 3, 2006, known as NPICP National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices, which regulates prescription and use of homeopathy in epidemics. From the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, received by us as an incentive and authorization to follow through with these actions, we expanded the fieldwork, once it had been initiated in the city of Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto, since 2001, a project to control dengue at the population level with homeopathic medicine1. Due to the excellent results obtained in February and March / 2007 in Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto2, Sà £o Paulo and Macaà ©3, Rio de Janeiro, with the homeopathic medicine we extended the use to thousands of individuals in various cities in different states of Brazil, such as Sà £o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espà ­rito Santo and Goià ¡s, and in Cuba, in Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Havana. The results of the clinical and epidemiological studies, were ratified by the medicines approval by ANVISA (the brazilian regulatory body of drugs administration) in December 2008, officially released in the category dengue treatment under the fancy name PRODEN, recorded by a national laboratory, and one of the five finalists of the 1st Sanofi-Aventis Prize, Medical Services Innovation New Directions in Public Health, in June 2009. For this to happen, the product has undergone rigorous testing in rats, rabbits and mice, in the Drug Research Laboratory of the Federal University of Amapà ¡, whose experiments have shown average increase of 200.000 platelets/ml to 600.000 platelets/ml in male rats4. The daily clinical practice has shown rapid improvement of the general condition of patients with dengue, confirmed by the prompt rise in platelet count. BUILDING A PROTOCOL FOR CONTROL OF THE EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER (EHF) The Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever has several points in common with the Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, as found in the 7th edition (2006) of Bogliolo’s5 text: in hemorrhagic fevers from Ebola and Marburg viruses, autopsy shows disseminated skin, mucosa and visceral bleeding, with extensive areas of renal and hepatic necrosis. Throughout the pathophysiology of both diseases, coagulation disorders have important, decisive for the rapid evolution to cardio-circulatory collapse, multiple organ failure, shock and death. Important to note that recent studies using electronic microscopy have shown that liver inflammation is the rule and not the exception, in cases of dengue, covering all four sorotypes6. THE FOUNDATIONS OF HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE APPROVED  BY ANVISA FOR DENGUE’S TREATMENT The protocol and technical report of the Health Board of Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto were implanted in all BHU (Basic Health Units) in the city in February 2007.2 Thousands of doses of the medicine were dispensed with great adherence of the population. In 20072, despite the magnitude of this epidemic, only one patient died, she was a health professional, due to suspected acetaminophen intoxication. The homeopathic complex is a combination of three homeopathic remedies, Phosphorus, Crotalus horridus and Eupatorium perfoliatum, these first two are because of the hemorrhagic events, the last one is limited to dengue itself, to constitute the epidemic genius peculiar to cases of classic dengue fever, without complications. The Eupatorium had its pathogenetic trials conducted in 1846 by the American Academy of Homeopathy, from a plant in the eastern United States of North America, which was used by native Indians to treat break-bone-fever . Hahnemann was the one to accomplish in 1823, the pathogenetic experimentation of Phosphorus, in Germany (Dresden and Leipzig). He is the prototype of the treatment of hepatitis, confirmed in studies with experimental animals subjected to poisoning by carbon tetrachloride in laboratà ³rio7. And finally Crotalus horridus, made from a north-american rattlesnake’s venom in 1837, made by Constantine Hering, is the primary reference and one of the most effective remedies for profuse, generalized and rapidly developed hemorrhages. FINALLY FINDING THE MEDICINE FOR THE CONTROL OF  THE EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER Given to the extensive knowledge already accumulated and analyzing the features found in the EHF epidemic, it is evident that these same remedies, Phosphorus and Crotalus horridus, already tested and used in cases of hepatic dysfunction and bleeding in dengue, should be added to the remedie that represents the epidemic genius of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), a brazilian plant named Ipecacuanha. Thus, the Anti-Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Homeopathic Complex, is the result of the combination of three remedies: Phoshorus, Crotalus horridus and Ipecacuanha. The Ipecacuanha is in the 1st list of 24 polychrests remedies established by Hahnemann and part of the group of the 60 major remedies used in Homeopathy8. According to the Treaty of Homeopathic Materia Medica9, the remedie is of maximum indication for acute disorders with nausea, copious bleeding of bright red blood from any orifice of the body, tightness in chest, cold sweats, facial pallor and little tendency to clot the bleeding. Prof. Michel Guermonprez10 highlights the relationship of this plant’s alkaloids with reflex nausea and drooling that always accompanies its symptomatic procession, bloody diarrhea (intestinal bleeding), cough and bronchial hypersecretion with blood (hemoptysis), severe headache and rapid evolution to weakness, with marked and rapid loss of vital forces, dehydration and shock. In the secular homeopathy practice, we find the option of using remedies in combination, and to ensure its effectiveness, we must follow the classical criteria, respecting the agreement of the general condition of the pathophysiological actions triggered by the isolated remedies and verified in animal or human experiments, in order to prevent antagonism and neutralization of the active ingredients of these remedies together, and thus ensure that the potentiation of its effects appear, as understanding of renowned authors such as Licà ­nio Cardoso, Helena Minin and Anna Kossak-Romanach, among others11. The key to find the correct medicine is to get as close as possible to the simillimum of the epidemic, in other words, what is the closest to the profile or individuation of the symptom picture of the epidemic, in its most frequent form and repeated manifestation, present in the greatest number of sick people at that period of time. We call this coincidence Similarity or Similitude Law, and that is the backbone of Homeopathy. The choice of potency or dynamisation comes after the determination of the most suitable medicine to control the epidemic and in this specific case of the EHF by gravity, magnitude and severity of the symptoms, is to be used in 15DH, as employed in the experimental work with animals and approved by ANVISA as explained above. INDICATION AND DOSAGE OF ANTI-EHF HOMEOPATHIC COMPLEX It should be clear that homeopathy is a complementary medicine to all actions already developed and used drugs, including antibiotics for bacterial complications, to stabilize the clinical condition of patients victimized by Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF). The indicated homeopathic remedies are prepared in combination, also known as Homeopathic Complex in a 30% alcohol solution, and 20ml bottles: PHOSPHORUS 15 DH + CROTALUS HORRIDUS 15 DH + IPECACUANHA 15 DH 1) doses for treatment of previously diagnosed and more severe cases: Administer 5 drops orally every 20 minutes until clinical stabilization of the patient, accompanying hemodynamic and laboratory parameters such as hematocrit, leukocytes and platelets, etc; 2) In the most stable cases: Keep 5 drops every 2 hours until clinical improvement, according to criteria such as general health, hydration, blood pressure, urinary flow, absence of bleeding and laboratory controls, such as leukocyte count and platelet count, hematocrit, etc; 3) Employment as a prophylactic: 5 drops administered orally twice daily (morning and evening), during the period of epidemic risk. Target audience: all susceptible population located in areas of occurrence of EHF. Renan Marino is Professor of FAMERP – Medicine School of Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto, Master in Health Sciences and President of IHFL Homeopathic Institute Franà §ois Lamasson Ribeirà £o Preto, Sà £o Paulo, Brazil. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1) MARINO R, Jamal EM, Esteves Neto SH, Constantine A, Braguini VR. Emprego Profilà ¡tico da Homeopatia em uma Epidemia de Dengue. Pesquisa Homeopatica/ Homeopatia Esplorado 2003, 18 (2): 2-6. Work also presented at the 59  ° Panamerican Congress of Homeopathy Havana / Cuba, in 2003, from the experience at Cristo Rei neighborhood in Sà £o Josà © do Rio Preto; 2) MARINO R. Homeopathy and Health: The Case of Dengue Epidemics. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008; 7 (25): 179-185. Available from: http://www.feg.unesp.br/~ojs/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/312/373; 3) NUNES LAS. Contribution of homeopathy to the control of an outbreak of dengue in Macaà ©, Rio de Janeiro. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008; 7 (25): 186-192. Available from: http://www.feg.unesp.br/~ojs/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/315/374; 4) VIRIATO, E., OLIVEIRA, B., CARVALHO, J. C. Avaliaà §Ãƒ £o da toxicidade sub-crà ´nica do Medicamento Proden ®. Brazilian Homeopathic Journal v. 11, n. 1, p. 23 24, 2009; 5) BOGLIOLO, Luigi; BRASILEIRO FILHO, Geraldo. Patologia. 6 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Guanabara Koogan, 2000; 6) MIGOWSKI, E. Uso de Antità ©rmicos em Doenà §as Infecciosas Virais. Abbott booklet of Brazil, 2002; 7) Encyclopà ©die Mà ©dico-Chirurgicale: Vol II Homeopathie Ed Tecniques, Paris, 1960-1968,. 8) KOSSAK-ROMANACH, A. A Homeopatia em 1000 Conceitos. Sà £o Paulo. Ed. Elcid; 1984; 9) VIJINOVSKY, B. Tratado de Materia Medica Homeopatica, volum II, Buenos Aires.Ed. Albatros, 1981; 10) GUERMONPREZ, M. et al. Materia Medicale Homeopathique, 2nd ed, Doin Editeurs, 1985, France.; 11) POZETTI, G L. Complexos e Complexismos. Ribeirà £o Preto / SP: IHFL, 1993;