Kalongo Hospital in Uganda is on high alert. Medics are facing the pandemic amid an already precarious healthcare situation, in a country with only 55 intensive care beds.
Mosquitoes, the most effective remedies
We long for summer, hot temperatures, holidays, dinners outside with friends. During good weather, however, mosquitoes and other insects come and bother us with their bites.
The first tip is that of creating a barrier between mosquitoes and our house, where they tend to hide. To do so, we should grow plants with an unpleasant odour for our enemies, for example herbs which are easy to cultivate and can be used daily in cooking, such as basil, rosemary, mint, lavender and lemongrass. We can enhance these aromas, which are pleasant for humans, with essential oils to be used every day. Lavender oil is generally the most popular one, basically, it is a classic that never goes out of fashion. We can pour a few drops in a paper handkerchief, a cotton ball or better a wooden ball and keep it on the windowsill or on our night table.
In a pot in our balcony we can grow geraniums, calendula, catnip and catambra, a plant with thick foliage that repels mosquitoes and is found in many dimensions depending on our need and the space we have available.
Let’s not forget that a diet rich in vitamins of group B makes the odour of our skin unpleasant for mosquitoes, which can smell it from several metres away. And then it is advisable to consume basil, mint and rosemary in profusion and a fresh lavender infusion. Hot chili pepper, garlic and black pepper also make you less attractive to mosquitoes.
There are available for sale, generally in herbalist’s shops, a number of sprays we should apply directly on our skin that contain active ingredients which are effective against mosquitoes. These products, which don’t contain toxic substances, should be sprayed abundantly even under the table, during summer dinners outside. In these cases, we can also employ specific incense and lemongrass candles.
The Tea tree oil is an excellent repellent for mosquitoes and it works even on bites, giving you sudden relief. Its very strong aroma keeps mosquitoes and other insects away, exactly as the less pleasant but extremely effective Neem oil. We can dilute few drops of these oils in a cream or in an aloe vera gel to be used daily. Another classic anti-mosquito product, whose effect is proven, is Marsh Labrador tea, a homeopathic remedy in granules that, if taken orally, makes our sweat unpleasant to the delicate and sensitive mosquito receptors. Generally, it is used in 5 CH or 9 CH diluition and it is recommendable to take 3 granules 3 or 4 times a day under the tongue and without food. If the problem is worse and our stings tend to swell up, we’d better take a single dose of Apis mellifica 200 CH, and then Istaminum 5 CH, 3 in granules every two hours until we notice improvements.
Ribes nigrum mg is an excellent remedy to tackle a strong reaction to mosquito and other insect bites. To prevent such reactions we’d better take it along with dog rose mg since the beginning of summer. Dosage depends on the age and the build of the person who should take it.
Australian flowers can also help us and it is useful to have both cream and drop preparation in case of emergency. The former should be applied soon after the sting, the latter should be taken under the tongue (7 drops every ten minutes four or five times) until the reaction regress. If the itch is very intense you can add to the cream as well as to the drops Spinifex, a shrub with needle-shaped leaves endemic to the Australian continent, which has detoxifying and soothing effects on stings.
There is a wide range of creams to be used to alleviate itch: from the homeopathic ointment made of arnica/urtica to the creams and gels that contain aloe and Tea tree oil, or the lavender essential oil; natural after bite sticks are also excellent to the purpose.
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