A Review of Homoeopathic Research in the Prevention and Treatment of Dengue Fever

Abstract

Introduction Dengue ranks as the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, with its incidence being increased 30-fold in the past 50 years. An epidemic of dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a major public health problem causing significant health and economic burden. The dengue crisis is further complicated by the lack of vaccines and antiviral drugs for prevention and control of this disease. This systematic review investigates and evaluates various studies done with homoeopathic therapy for the prevention and treatment of dengue fever. Objective Evaluate the usefulness of homoeopathy for a prevention and treatment of dengue fever through literature review and to develop the strategy for future research. Method A comprehensive search in electronic database aimed to target the available literature of observational studies, randomised trials, controlled trials, case studies on dengue fever in homoeopathy (excluding non–peer-reviewed journals) and limited to English language. Result A literary search through various databases helped identify a few significant studies as one double-blind placebo-controlled trial, one comparative clinical study, one case study and two community-based studies.The community-based studies showed positive results for the role of homoeopathic medicines as a prophylactic medicine. The double-blind placebo-controlled trial showed no difference in outcome between the two groups. The comparative clinical study showed that the homoeopathic combination appeared to be a more potent treatment against dengue fever when compare with standard maintenance therapy. The case study shows favourable results, but the sample size is only of 10 cases. Conclusion In future, high-quality randomised controlled trial (RCT), vitro and animal model studies are required to support the efficacy of homoeopathic therapeutics.