A dengue pill!

DON’T laugh now, but as the dengue epidemic continues to take its toll, a cure has been found, contained in a capsule containing the essence of a weed that goes by the hilarious name of tawa-tawa.

From every 100 kilos of leaves, stem, and roots, only about 10 kilos will be useful in the manufacturing process. Laugh all you want, but even DOST scientists and a worldly, sophisticated banker like RS have seen how tawa-tawa, brewed like tea, is the antidote to asthma, diarrhea, and malaria. Now, after nine years of research, tests, and clinical trials by pharmacists and chemists, tawa-tawa in capsule form has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as “traditionally used to relieve the symptoms of asthma.” Tawa2 Plus is neither a food supplement nor a drug, it is the first and so far the only traditional cure with an FDA imprimatur.

“We have passed the tests for safety and toxicity. Now we wait to test for efficacy,” reported Shirley Alampay, “even if it will take years and tons of money.” When Tawa2 passes the efficacy tests, the claim may then be made that the product is a medicine for dengue.

In the meantime, doctors treat dengue with blood transfusions to increase the platelet count. On their own, patients may opt to drink the tawa-tawa brew. Most people are averse to transfusions, and as for swallowing enormous amounts of tea that tastes like soil, wouldn’t taking a capsule every hour for 24 hours be a less unpleasant choice?

Ms. Alampay, a “frustrated MD” who grew up in a family where herbal medicines were preferred over pharmacological products, said the capsules will be on sale starting next month at Mercury drugstores. For urgent cases she can be reached at 0917-811-5643.

The weed grows wild in the plains and mountains where they are picked by entire barangays. It abhors isolation and being cultivated in a plantation; it would rather thrive freely with other plants. In the Visayas, the name is gatas-gatas, for the sap that contains the secret of its curative powers.