September 2020 Vol. 8 No.9

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Original Research Article

A Study on Investigating the role of Papaya Extracts in the Management of Acute Thrombocytopenia in Dengue Fever, is there any Clinical Significance?

Dr. Muhammad Sohaib Asghar¹, Dr. Maira Hassan², Dr. Uzma Rasheed², Dr. Rumael Jawed², Dr. Noman Ahmed Khan³, Syed Jawad Haider Kazmi⁴, Dr. Salman Ahmed Khan⁵

¹Resident Physician, Internal Medicine, Dow University Hospital
²Intern, Internal Medicine, Liaquat National Hospital
³Resident, General Surgery, Liaquat National Hospital
⁴Resident, Emergency Medicine, Liaquat National Hospital
⁵Doctoral Student, Dow International Medical College

*Corresponding Author's E-mail: sohaib_asghar123@yahoo.com

Received: 27 August 2020  I  Accepted: 21 September 2020  I  Published: 27 September 2020  I  Article ID: MRJMMS-20-135
Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

Pakistan had an epidemic of dengue fever with a yearly prevalence of 0.4-0.5/100,000 reported. In the current epidemics of dengue, utilization of Carica papaya leaves earned popularity in treating thrombocytopenia.Our main objective was to determine the course and duration of recovery of thrombocytopenia in patients with dengue infection who were using papaya extracts and compare them to those who did not receive papaya extracts during the hospital stay. The study included all the patients with a diagnosis of dengue infection via serology, with the exclusion of all patients who were transfused with platelets during the hospital stay, or had a known chronic or autoimmune thrombocytopenic illness. ICU admissions and mortalities were also excluded from the study population. Platelet counts of study groups were monitored and compared at Day 1, 4 and 7 with one group using papaya extracts alongside intravenous hydration administered in both study and control groups. There was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay between the two groups, no added benefit in the doubling time of platelets. Although many studies are supporting the role of papaya extracts in increasing platelet counts on a molecular level, its role in attaining recovery from acute thrombocytopenic conditions like dengue viral fever is still ambiguous and lack clinical evidence in our study.

Keywords: Dengue fever, Disease control, Disease prevention, Public Health, Treatment