Valuable Lessons from Dengue Fever

Some weeks before veteran 80-year-old filmmaker Yash Chopra died in Mumbai after contracting dengue, in spite of availing treatment from costly private hospital.

Few weeks before, in a private hospital at Trichy, a middle class young patient with dengue tested around 12,000 platelets in blood, facing imminent death. On my suggestion, my friend related to the patient told the parents to try papaya leaf juice as the last attempt to save the patient's life. After taking the juice periodically, within 2 days the platelets increased to > 1 lakh and the patient was discharged the next day. 

My illiterate servant told me that all her family members drank papaya leaf juice when one of them had symptoms of fever.

Two relevant Questions

Why the rich people succumb to dengue fever while those in middle class and poor could escape through a simple remedy?

How the illiterates /semi-literates know the remedy while educated high classes are ignorant of it?

Distribution of information among lower middle class and poor people through interpersonal communication are unconstrained , while the upper middle class and the rich live like status caged human animals, insulated to receive ‘papaya leaf juice’ like information to save their lives.

Unless we are aware of the cages around us, we will never know what freedom means - insulated without the freedom even to receive information that could save our lives.