Cholera: Treatment with Natural Medicine / medicinal plants

A. To prevent cholera

1. Always wash your hands after using the toilet and before eating.

2. Purify your water.

a) The best method is to boil your drinking water for ten minutes.

b) Use moringa seeds (see the anamed seminar handbook page 48).

c) Use the method of solar disinfection. See: http://www.gaia-movement.org/files/Booklet%205e%20%20Water%20Purification.pdf. If you have no internet access, the procedure is as follows:

• Fill clean clear plastic bottles (PET) with screw caps 3/4 full with water - as clean as possible.
• Shake well (20 seconds) to get air into the water. The oxygen helps to kill the bacteria.
• Fill up completely with more water and screw the cap tight. There should be no air inside as air bubbles reflect the sun’s rays.
• Lie the bottle down in a sunny place.
• The warmer the better, so it is good to place them on a black surface - or paint half of the side black (black side down).
• After 6 hours of sunlight the water is disinfected.
• If it is very cloudy leave the bottles for 2 days.
• Place the bottles in a cool place or in water to cool. Store the water in the same bottles and use it from the bottles. Do not fill it into other containers as they have not been disinfected.

Daily dosage of ORS Age ml under 6 months 700 6 mth to 2 years 1400 2 to 6 years 2100 7 years and older 2800 Adults 3500

B. To treat cholera 

1. Always give the patient Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) –
   to replace the lost liquid, minerals and energy.

   Preparation of ORS: to one litre of water, add 4 tablespoons of
   honey or 2 heaped tablespoons of sugar (30g), and half of a level
   teaspoon of salt.

2. If you can, take the patient to a clinic, give antibiotics
  according to the doctor’s advice. Also treat the patient yourself
  with ORS and anamed diarrhoea tea.

3. Prepare: “anamed diarrhoea tea” (see the anamed Seminar
  Handbook page 16). This tea is extremely effective, and has saved countless lives.

  Wash one handful each of

• asthma weed (Euphorbia hirta - the whole plant, but not the roots).
• guava leaves.
• young bright green mango leaves.

  Note: one handful is the amount that the patient can hide in the fist.

  Boil for 2 minutes in one litre of water, and leave to steep for 30 minutes. Filter. If either guava
  or mango is not available, use pawpaw leaves instead.

Dosage of anamed diarrhoea tea Age Daily dosage 1 to 3 years 1/4 litre 4 to 6 years 1/2 litre 7 to 12 years 3/4 litre 13 to adult one litre

  Drink this quantity of tea slowly in the
  course of the next 24 hours. Take for 8
  days, even if the symptoms disappear.

4. ONLY if this tea is not effective, (and it
  usually is), make the tea as described
  above, but immediately after taking the tea
  off the heat add one handful of fresh leaves
  of Vinca rosea, and leave to steep for 30
  minutes.

5. STOP PRESS! We have received reports from Mozambique that tea of Artemisia annua has been effective in treating cholera. If this is true, it is wonderful news! Please try this and let us know your results.

For more information about the prevention of cholera, see the sheet
“How to prevent cholera” published by the Hesperian Foundation