This is the tricky part of the year when monsoon seems to play hide and seek while the sun seems to take every opportunity to be warm and bright, is probably a right recipe for a viral infection. It is the time when the damp and dry changes in climate can cause the viruses to grow that more robust and the population tends to have a sneeze and a running nose at the drop of a hat, makes it an ideal time for the viral infections to cause viral fever.
More often than not viral fever is due to the viruses being transmitted from one to the other through air and sometimes are also waterborne. It may be probable to prevent water infections but the viruses that spread through the air may be very very difficult as the air we breathe could carry them. There are a number of viruses and can morph so easily that it becomes difficult to track them easily. For example there could be more than two hundred viruses that could cause a common cold.
Viral fever is usually characterized by high fever that continues abated and could rise to between 102-104F and becomes difficult to differentiate it from a bacterial infection. Patients with viral fever could suffer from sneezing, nasal discharge, blocking of the nose, falling of mucus from the nose into the throat, throat irritation and sometimes pain in the throat while swallowing. Very soon they tend develop a cough that can remain nagging as it does not relieved by medication easily. More often not such patients have to visit the Homeopath more often for this irritating and cumbersome cough which never seems to leave and they continue t suffer for even a month just reminding them of the ordeal of viral fever. Heaviness of the head and headache is a common complaint that is associated with the fever. If the flu is related to the gastrointestinal system there could be diarrhoea too. Viral fever may go away in a couple of days or a week but in some particular viral infections like Chikungunya the pain in the joints may linger and could be one for a few months in some patients too confusing them with conditions like Rheumatoid arthritis etc.
A routine complete blood picture gives an idea whether it is a viral or a bacterial infection with the number of white blood cells which are usually less in a viral infection. To narrow down to the probable virus like Chikungunya or Dengue, certain other antigen-antibody tests are helpful. This is also a season where malaria is predominant while infections like typhoid are always endemic.
To manage one out of the viral fever is of utmost importance to see that the weakness does not last and the patient is relieved out of it as early as possible. Hydration is the key and it would be helpful if the patient is given warm water with electrolytes at frequent intervals. Avoiding oily and spicy foods is the key which could otherwise burden the system further. Foods like soups, idlis, khichdi, dalia, soft rotis and mashed rice are the easiest to digest and should be insisted upon. Homeopathic remedies have good remedies to bring the patient out of the viral fever at the earliest and also allay the weaknes that can ensue after the infection is done away with. Remedies like Ars alb, Rhus tox, Bryonia, Natrum mur, Eupa perf, Gelsemium help bring down the viral fever in quick time and remedies like Hepar sulph, Kali bich, Kali mur, Pulsatilla, help fight away the flu like illness and help the patient on the path of recovery.
