During the Japanese Occupation medicine was rare and those who were sick had to depend on home remedies. Some illnesses were of course fatal. The milder illnesses were treated as small matter and in no time the patient would be working as hard as anyone.
According to local oral history one of the most common illnesses was Pah Gan (Foochow term for Malaria I suppose).
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| Cinchona plant and bark - Photo from Google. |
An aunt remembers a relative who was sick during the war with the shivers. Every day at 3 pm the patient would start shivering. She would be put under several layers of blankets , yet she would start to shiver. The metal bed she was in would rattle loudly under her weight. She was quite a plump lady. But the rattling of the bed frightened the daylights out of the children, and even adults.
All she had was Gie Na tablets which some hospital staff had saved from the Brooke days. Quinine tablets were indeed rare commodities in those days.
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| Metal Bed - Vintage style. |
After a week or so of shivering (every day at 3 pm ) the patient got better. Throughout her illness she pulled her own weight in household duties, looking after children, feeding them, cooking for every one.
It must have been a terrible experience for the patient.
Quinine is actually a miracle bark first discovered by Jesuit priests in Peru. It is from the bark of the cinchona tree, which is native to Peru. Since 1632 after it was introduced to Spain by Jesuit missionaries from the New Word, it has been used to treat malaria. It is on the WHO list of Essential Medicines (Wikipedia). The Chinese call it Gie Nah. This is the term from Baidu 金鸡纳霜.
Quinine has saved many lives in Sarawak.
2 comments:
I heard the Ibans and other indigenous people made use of langsta bark to cure malaria. They would boiled a few pieces of the bark to make tincture to be drunk to cure malaria. Have you heard of that?
That's nice to known. I am sure every indigenous group of people have their own home remedies. Thank you for sharing.
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