“We have our institutions, systems and processes in the country.”
While receiving a sample of COVID-Organics from the President of Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, Buhari said his position on all such herbal or traditional medicinal postulates had remained the same, stressing that he would not allow the solution, or any other drug to be administered on Nigerians without scientific instructions.
He also said that his new government met a country beset with a number of issues and problems, the resolution of which would require tremendous assistance from “big brother,” Nigeria. But as Buhari promised not to allow the Madagascan solution, or any other drug to be administered on Nigerians without scientific instructions, some experts have warned that the misuse of Artemisia, one of the main plant extracts in the tonic , could accelerate malaria resistance to artemisinin-based drugs, used as treatment for malaria.
He said, “The cure from Madagascar has been making the news and we have promised to get samples of the herb or the botanical products that is there for analysis and use as an opportunity to speak with the health authorities, particularly the scientific community, on how they use it. The United Nations agency in a release this month acknowledged that medicinal plants such as Artemisia annua, were “being considered as possible treatment of COVID-19,” but stressed that they “should be tested for efficacy and adverse side effects.”
Reacting to this, a clinical pharmacist and public health expert Kingsley Chiedu, said: “In treatment of malaria, if artemisinin is used as monotherapy insists on artemisinine being combined with other anti-malarial medicines. When the product is used alone at sub-optimal doses, resistance could develop. When used at higher than recommended doses, toxicity or adverse drug reactions can set in.”
Regarding injecting higher than recommended therapeutic doses, Chiedu said this could lead to toxicity and adverse reaction. “But for now, it is too early to speculate that it can lead to drug resistant. What we need to do now is to encourage our own local herbal products up to the point of testing,” he said.
Artemisinin is not the first malaria treatment to gain attention in the search for a treatment for COVID-19. The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has also been hyped in recent months despite little data supporting its effectiveness against coronavirus infection. Nasidi, who expressed the belief that Nigeria and Africa have the scientific and alternative medicine competence to finding a cure for the virus, urged government to increase funding for research centres in the country.Meanwhile, Nigerian researchers have published the first-ever study on how the first 32 COVID-19 patients were treated with lopinavir-rotonavir, with no recorded death.
According to the researchers, success in curtailing pandemic depends largely on a sound understanding of the epidemiological and clinical profile of cases in a population, as well as the case management approach. They concluded: “In this preliminary analysis of the first COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, clinical presentation was mild to moderate with no mortality. Processes to improve promptness of admission and reduce hospital stay are required to enhance the response to COVID-19 in Nigeria.”
It equally noted that “Ehanire’s statement had heightened apprehensions in the public space that the Chinese team, whose identity and activities have been shrouded in secrecy, might have been brought in by a certain cabal for another purpose outside the general public good.”
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