COVID-Organics
By Our Reporter
As Nigeria set to adopt the Madagascar herbal remedy as cure for COVID-19, the World Health Organisation( WHO) has advised governments to clinically test the herbal drink touted by Madagascar’s President, Andry Rajoelina, as a remedy against Coronavirus.
The COVID-Organics infusion is derived from artemisia – a plant with proven anti-malarial properties – and other indigenous herbs.
Rajoelina said the herb cures COVID-19 patients within 10 days.
Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and the Niger Republic have already received consignments of the potion. Others such as Tanzania have expressed interest.
But the World Health Organisation has repeatedly warned that there are no published scientific studies of the herbal tea and that its effects have not been tested.
“We would caution and advise countries against adopting a product that has not been taken through tests to see its efficacy,” WHO Africa Director, Matshidiso Moeti, said in a press briefing on Thursday, calling on Madagascar to take the drink “through a clinical trial”.
Moeti said that in 2000, African governments had committed to taking “traditional therapies” through the same clinical trials as other medication.
“I can understand the need, the drive to find something that can help,” Moeti said. “But we would very much like to encourage this scientific process in which the governments themselves made a commitment.”
Rajoelina defended his tonic during a Coronavirus screening campaign in Madagascar’s Eastern city of Toamasina and promised to submit the drink to clinical trials.
