A BATTLE WITH AN INVISIBLE ENEMY

This piece is NOT about insurgents or terrorists. It concerns a threat which all of us face wherever we live. It is a curse of the modern civilization in which we sleep indoors all through the year. My research began a few weeks ago, when I was plagued by a severe attack of allergies.  Each night, a rash appeared on the exposed part of mu skin and the itching was unbearable. The doctor thought it was an allergy and gave me some anti-histamines. The dosage kept increasing. The skin specialist prescribed some lotions, but they were of not much use.

At this point of time, our homoeopath neighbour asked me if we had sanitized our beds and the bed linen. She told us about house dust mites, and how to get rid of them. Back home, I read about these microscopic creatures. The link below gives the basics.

I read more about it on the Wikipedia. The first task was to take the beds out and ‘sun’ them for a couple of days. The bed linen was subjected to a thorough wash at high temperatures. The results were very positive. The rash disappeared!

For those who may want to know more the Wikipedia summary is given below. In the good old days, we slept out doors during the summer, and so the dust mites were taken care of. But now, with fans, coolers and air conditioners, we sleep indoors all through the year. And that is the root cause of this new menace!

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