WHO approved protocol to test African herbal medicines as potential treatments for coronavirus
Brazzaville, Congo:
The World Health Organization on Saturday approved a protocol to test African herbal medicines as potential treatments for coronavirus and other epidemics.
Covid-19 raised the issue of the use of traditional drugs to fight contemporary diseases, and its approval clearly encouraged testing with criteria similar to those used for molecules developed by laboratories in Asia, Europe or in Americas.
It came months after an offer from the President of Madagascar to promote an artemisia-based drink, a plant with proven efficacy in treating malaria, was met with widespread contempt.
On Saturday, WHO experts and colleagues from two other organizations “approved a protocol for phase III clinical trials of herbal medicine for Covid-19 as well as a charter and terms of reference for the creation of an oversight committee data and safety for clinical herbal medicine trial, ”a statement read.
“Phase III clinical trials are essential to fully assess the safety and efficacy of a new medical product,” he noted.
“If a traditional medicine product is found to be safe, effective and of guaranteed quality, WHO will recommend it for rapid and large-scale local manufacture,” said Prosper Tumusiime, WHO regional director.
WHO’s partners are the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Union Commission for Social Affairs.
“The appearance of Covid-19, like the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, has highlighted the need to strengthen health systems and accelerate research and development programs, including on traditional medicines, ”Tumusiime said.
He did not refer specifically to the Malagasy drink Covid-Organics, also known as CVO, which President Andry Rajoelina presented as a cure for the virus.
It was widely distributed in Madagascar and sold in several other countries, mainly in Africa.
In May, WHO’s director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, told media outlets that African governments had pledged in 2000 to take “traditional therapies” in the same clinical trials as other drugs.
“I can understand the need, the willingness to find something that can help,” Moeti said. “But we would very much like to encourage this scientific process in which governments themselves are engaged.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
