Outbreak of Salmonella Poisoning at a School
How a Homoeopath Helped 100 Pupils
One Sunday in summer I received a phone call. A friend of a friend rang me, saying I was their last hope. Who could they turn to who would have time on a Sunday to visit an alternative boys' boarding school in the country outside London? Some kind of epidemic had broken out there and no one seemed immune. I grabbed a large box of homoeopathic remedies and drove for an hour into the countryside.
Fresh air, please!
As it turned out, my destination was a yeshiva for Hasidic Jewish teenage boys – a closed community that tends not even to admit non-Jewish outsiders. So I was given an unusual insight. The boys lived in overcrowded dormitories and, at least on that day, in very unhygienic conditions. There is no polite way to put it: the boys were lying about, reeking of their own faeces, looking weak and run down, and emitting clouds of foul-smelling flatus. Some were sitting in the shade on the lawn. They craved fresh air rather than lying in their communal sleeping-rooms, and several had even spent the night outdoors. Some 100 boys were affected by this severe digestive disorder, which presented chiefly as diarrhoea and vomiting. Their symptoms immediately led me to consider Carbo vegetabilis as a possible remedy. He writes of it: “Carbo vegetabilis is an antidote in many poisoning-like conditions. Food-poisonings caused by rotten food, particularly rotten fish, are accompanied by extreme burning pains, flatulence, a very distended abdomen, weakness, cold sweat, a weak pulse and a bluish discolouration, yet with a craving for air and amelioration by fanning of air.” (Homeopathic Recorder, January 1936)
Gefillte fish and egg with mayonnaise
To make a good prescription, however, I wanted to be sure I heard the whole story, so I spoke with some of the staff and pupils about what had happened before the illness struck. The residents had eaten their usual Friday evening and Saturday Sabbath meals. The problems did not appear until Saturday night. What had they eaten for Saturday lunch? The dishes had been taken from a freezer on Friday afternoon and possibly not fully thawed before cooking, and/or they had been undercooked. The menu included “gefillte fish” (a mixture of fish, potatoes, flour, carrots and usually also egg) and very likely egg with mayonnaise. With this information in mind I considered several other remedies for the boys. China officinalis is a valuable remedy for food poisoning, loss of body fluids, weakness and exhaustion and the sequelae of eating putrid fish. Arsenicum is a classic for diarrhoea and vomiting (often occurring together) when the cause is food poisoning. Accompanying this in the early stages are restlessness, anxiety and cold sweat. Therefore, as might be expected, the remedy China arsenicosum has many of the same indications as China and also Arsenicum. China arsenicosum is indicated for diarrhoea from eggs and fish. Supported by the MacRepertory™ software I found that China arsenicosum is the only remedy listed in the repertory under the symptom “aggravation by fish and eggs”. People needing this remedy sometimes also lose control of their bodily functions. Indeed, China arsenicosum seemed to fit many of the symptoms the boys were suffering. Unfortunately I did not have this remedy with me. The boy who smelled most strongly and also had a craving for air received Carbo veg. Those who were in the early stages with restless anxiety and simultaneous diarrhoea and vomiting received Arsenicum. Those who had lost most body fluids and lay weak received China.
Recovery begins
When I visited the school again the following morning I found that most of the boys had improved very quickly, especially those who had received Carbo veg. Some of the boys who had taken China simply needed another dose of the remedy to complete the cure. Most of those who had originally received Arsenicum required China arsenicosum, which I had brought with me on my second visit. This remedy covers the symptom of involuntary passage of stool while passing urine – a phenomenon that explained some of the odours and is also a sign of salmonella poisoning. The remedy proved very useful and most of the boys made a speedy recovery. Two, however, were admitted to hospital, being so weak that I considered they had lost too much fluid for me to take responsibility for them. I also reported the problem at the school to the authorities. They investigated and found salmonella to be the cause. Some of the most seriously ill boys received Gaertner* as the final remedy, a homoeopathic medicine prepared from Salmonella bacteria. I believe they recovered fully and rapidly. Conclusion: avoid poorly thawed and badly cooked food in hot weather.
* You have probably heard of Dr Edward Bach, renowned for his Bach flower remedies. Before ‘communicating with nature’ he worked as a bacteriologist at the Royal Homoeopathic Hospital in London. There he experimented with homoeopathic remedies made from bacteria of the intestinal flora, including Gaertner. Bach’s remedies later became known as bowel nosodes.
About the Autor
Francis Treuherz, MA, RSHom, FSHom, lives in London with his wife, two sons, a library of 7,500 volumes of homoeopathic literature, old bottles, medicine containers, portraits and drawings. After his training he has practised homoeopathy since 1984, including 13 years in the National Health Service. He has written numerous historical and clinical articles, as well as a research report and a book. He was on the committee of the Society of Homoeopaths and is now, for the second time running, editor of their journal The Homoeopath.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Source: https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/school-suffers-salmonella-outbreak-how-one-homeopath-helped-100-students/
Photo 3D illustration of Salmonella Bacteria for medicine concept: Shutterstock_735472669_Copyright urfin
