Expert pours cold water on papaya leaf treatment

PETALING JAYA: Do not get excited over papaya juice extract as a treatment for dengue.
Renowned Australia scientist Scott O'Neill (pix) says until there is some clinical data or scientific research to check on the efficacy of papaya leaf extract to treat dengue, it will only be considered as hearsay.
O'Neill told theSun that regardless of the claim, it was still of utmost priority to have scientific evidence to back these claims.
"This is because there are many different remedies out there which people had said were able to treat different diseases but not every remedy is suitable or have high success rates in treating a disease.
"Hence, by having these scientific evidence it will then allow us to know to what extent the remedy works," he added.
He further pointed out that as far as he knows about papaya leaf extract, there has not been any major clinical studies conducted to determine its success rate in treating dengue.
However, O'Neill does not reject the point that papaya leaf extract might actually be able to treat dengue but he urged everyone to be cautious.
O'Neill currently heads the international Eliminate Dengue Research Programme where he and his team are examining the potential use of inherited bacterial symbionts of insects, Wolbachia, as a method to stop the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes from transmitting dengue.
"The programme has been going on smoothly to the extent where we managed to move from basic bench studies in the lab to conducting field tests in different countries like Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Brazil and they will be conducting similar field tests in Columbia soon.
"I believe that within the next three years we will be able to know how effective this approach is in controlling dengue as our research has demonstrated that when Wolbachia is present in the mosquito it actually help to reduce their ability to transmit dengue viruses," he said..
Asked if similar tests will be conducted in Malaysia considering that the nation has been plagued by the dengue outbreak for many years, O'Neill said that there was no concrete plan yet for the time being.
"However, we have talked to the Malaysian government about our work and they have shown some interest and even requested for extra information so hopefully in the future we will be able to start our programme here," he added.