The Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Dacosta Aboagye has said Ghana is prepared to test the efficacy of samples of ‘Covid-Organics’- the purported COVID-19 cure from Madagascar through its regulator.
Food and Drugs Authority, and the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM), according Dr. Da Costa Aboagye will ascertain its potency and advise the public accordingly, as soon as the nation takes delivery of samples.
“We have asked them to bring samples and if we test the efficacy of the medicine and its capable of curing covid-19, we will take it in large quantities. But until then, we’ll hold on and allow our regulators to subject it to rigorous testing before we can advise on it. We have to protect human lives,” he told host Kweku Owusu Adjei on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.
‘Covid-Organics’, is the herbal remedy produced from artemisia, a plant with proven efficacy against malaria, and other indigenous herbs as stated by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research in Madagarscar.
The plant was first imported into the island nation in the 1970s from China to treat malaria.
It is now marketed in bottles as a herbal tea, while the President of Madagascar, Mr Andry Rajoelina has said clinical trials were under way in the country to produce a form that could be injected into the body.
As COVID-19 spreads across Africa and leaders put their countries in lockdown, President Rajoelina last month launched the herbal remedy that he claimed could prevent and cure the disease.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) have also advised people against using untested remedies for COVID-19.
“Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standards as people in the rest of the world,” WHO, the United Nations health agency.
“Even if therapies are derived from traditional practice are natural, establishing their efficacy and safety through rigorous clinical trials is critical,” said in a statement on Monday.
