EPIDEMIC. Beni doctors suggest use of a Thai product to strengthen the human body

Physicians recommend increasing patient defences

Paura Rodríguez Leyton

Following the successful experience accomplished in the Municipal Hospital Germán Busch of Trinidad, where 19 patients received treatment with Vilac Plus and recorded shorter convalescence than with the standard of care, the Chairman of the Beni Medical Association, Dr Rubén Darío Aukel, and the Director of the abovementioned hospital, Dr Arvi Tordoya Guzmán, recommended the use of the product to counteract the damaging effects of the dengue virus on the human body.

These professionals asserted that administration of the eubiotic drink Vilac Plus as a stimulant to improve the body’s immune defence system is a natural alternative for intervention in the epidemic.

As a result of the trial, the doctors pointed out that when adding this drink into the standard protocol applied against dengue the clinical development of patient cases could be reduced from five days to 24–48 hours.

The product is a food supplement of plant origin that has immunostimulant and antioxidant qualities; clinically, it is suitable to prevent contagious infectious diseases or to reduce their intensity.

Daniel Saint André, General Manager of Solayni, the authorised distributor of the product in Bolivia, assures that the dimensions attained by the epidemic are due not only to factors such as lack of hygiene and health hazards, but that they are fundamentally related to poor diet and the state of malnutrition affecting a high percentage of people in Bolivia. He asserted that prevention is important, as the huge number of people who have contracted dengue in this epidemic are likely to contract another strain of the virus again in the future, and suffer a more powerful version of the disease the next time. He maintained that the population in question, whose unofficial numbers exceed 100,000, were to increase its immune defences, they would be less likely to contract the disease again.

It is suggested that the trial be conducted in further depth by incorporating it in the medical protocols developed for the treatment of dengue.

For Rodrigo Ibáñez, Solayni Sales Manager, the action taken to date against the epidemic would only record temporary results, as the virus is in human beings and the mosquito is only a vector, as initially vectors are born healthy. Both Ibáñez and Saint André asked the health authorities to take the recommendation into account. One litre of the product costs Bs 800, and it is calculated that a person will need to drink one or two litres per year.