In recent weeks, community health centers and national reference hospitals have reported an increase in patients with respiratory diseases, warn doctors at Nicaraguan centers.
The Health Map and the epidemiological bulletins of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) have not yet provided an update on this increase, a task pending since 2023; however, specialists estimate that at least 161 patients are being treated for pneumonia in the country.
“We are talking about almost 800 new cases in one week,” says one of the doctors. In 2023, Minsa reports indicated that the most frequent cause of hospitalization was pneumonia with 27,861 cases, followed by diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis with 15,573, diseases of the gallbladder, biliary tract and pancreas with 14,804 and suspected dengue fever with 12,162 diagnoses.
A series of medicinal herbs such as Turmeric, Oregano, Rosemary among others
People complain that hospitals only give them prescriptions and send them “off” for a couple of days, while anti-flu medicines and drugs to treat the rainy season viruses have gone up in price in pharmacies. Two weeks ago, several citizens reported an increase of between five and ten cordobas in pills for these ailments.
Grandmothers to the rescue of health and the economy
Some pharmacists with businesses in Managua and others in Estelí blame the laboratories for the price increases. “We have no choice but to apply it,” said one owner.
Consuelo González, a 77-year-old woman from El Sauce, in the municipality of León, has eight children, six of whom are boys and two girls. Her offspring have filled her house with 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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She told this report that everyone at home has gotten sick from the breezes and rains of the season. “Before, the kids weren’t as vulnerable in their health as they are now,” says the midwife. “Now, with a slight whistling of the wind, they get sick with those dog coughs (sharp and constant),” she criticizes. She says that treating illnesses in a medical center is not only expensive due to time and transportation, the worst thing is the medicines. “That is very expensive,” she points out.
González says that when she was a child, when she was sick, her parents and grandparents gave her “plant decoctions” that, in addition to being effective, did not cost more than “a jug of water, a stove and looking for the plant in the mountains and pastures.” “That way, one was cured,” she notes.
She said, for example, that “the bark of a tree called Matahambre or Cuajadita, that little shell, I add it to any medicine, in a jiffy it takes away stomach pains or if you have diarrhea,” explains Consuelo. “I’ve already made decoctions for these kids and look, they’re cured, and without spending so much. I recommend returning to natural medicine for ailments that can be cured this way,” she concludes.
“For every evil,” they say
Sitting in a rocking chair that no one in her house touches because whoever does gets into trouble with a rustic cane that always accompanies her, the grandmother assured that there are homemade infusions for every ailment.
«I remember that for coughs and colds there is nothing like a lemongrass decoction, that herb is the best, especially now that there are so many viruses. The other day one of my two daughters, Josefa, the oldest of 51 years old, told me that her son, my grandson, got sick and spent two weeks with a cough, fever and vomiting. She spent almost a thousand pesos on medicine. An outrage. With these herbs, she wouldn’t spend anything,» said the woman from Sauce.
Images of the Marango pod, its seed is used to cure various common illnesses such as cough and flu.
Altagracia was born in Río Grande, Matagalpa municipality. At 79 years old, she says that she has never depended on medicines and hospitals to stay healthy.
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“I cure myself. I spent more than 30 years without suffering from monthly (menstrual) pains, zero pain, zero cramps, I always had my sage decoction on hand, that is a leaf from a miraculous tree, no pills, no nothing for stomach pain. Listen carefully, there is nothing like sage,” she says.
«Look at me, 12 children, and here I am, healthy thanks to the Virgin and the little plants that ‘Papa Chu’ (God) left us,» says the woman, who also said that she has cured her grandchildren with medicinal plants. «Juancito (Juan), who is the oldest of my children, fell off a guava tree because he was lazy; his foot swelled and he was screaming. The old boy was nine years old, I only needed to soak his foot in a decoction of mango leaves and in two hours the kid was already running,» said Mrs. Altagracia.
Images of the Marango flower used to strengthen people’s immune system.
The children and grandchildren of Crecencia Suazo, a 91-year-old woman born in Yalagüina, municipality of Madriz, inherited from her “faith” in medicinal plants. “My mother gave birth to seven children and we are all alive. She cured us with plants, now we cure our children in the same way,” says one of her oldest daughters.
“Here we cure these kids’ coughs, stomach aches or any of these illnesses unless things get serious, which doesn’t always happen because these kids are strong,” reiterated Suazo’s daughter.
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She recalled that an uncle’s daughter looked ill after the operation that the doctors performed on her (a Caesarean section), “to deliver Carlitos, who is her first child.” “My mommy said that she gasped for air. She was dying of colic, so she (Mrs. Crecencia) sent her husband to the mountains to look for some turpentine tar, he wrapped it in a strip of cloth and put it on her, and half an hour later the woman was as good as new,” she said.
The herbalists are in the markets
For this report, we visited some sections of the Oriental market, specifically in the fish gallery, behind where the sugar factory used to be. There we find one of the few owners of sections of that market where these natural herbs are sold. She asked to be called Ramona. “Yes, a lot of people are coming here to look for the healing herbs,” she said.
«Turmeric is in high demand here, it is a natural anti-inflammatory. It is drunk in tea, another herb that is in high demand is moringa, basil, aloe, and oregano leaves are also in demand, which is very good, the best natural antibiotic,» said the merchant.
“The truth is that there are so many medicinal plants that it is not necessary to resort to so many pills and thus one saves a few cents,” he recommended.
