Madagascar coronavirus cure: Ghana no request for Covid-Organic herbal medicine

Ghana

BBC

Govment of Ghana on Thursday clarify say dem no request for de herbal medicine wey Madagascar develop as COVID-19 ‘cure’ for testing.

Ghanaians start dey mount pressure on govment after news of Madagascar President, Andry Rajoelina reveal say dem find herbal cure for de virus.

Ghana Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah tell daily briefing for Accra say na Madagascar authorities reach out to dem to offer dem di Covid-Organic herbal medicine as support.

Despite de lack of endorsement from WHO, Ghana wan do independent test on de what dis herbal cure dey like.

“We reach out to dem (Madagascar). We ask say make dem am available to us like all drugs” Oa Nkrumah reveal.

“Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and Centre for Plant Medicine go test am to proven efficacious, we can recommend it use” he add.

Some African countries already take stock of de said cure, but World Health Organisation (WHO) no endorse de medicine yet.

Meanwhile, Ghana dey research for herbal cure too, Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine talk BBC Pidgin.

Madagascar Covid-19 herbal drink

Getty Images

Wetin dey inside di drink

Launched as Covid-Organics, dem produce di drink from di Artemisia plant – di source of ingredient wey dem dey use for malaria treatment and oda Malagasy plants.

Dem dey market am inside bottle and as herbal tea afta dem test am on less than 20 pipo over period of three weeks, na so di president chief of staff tell BBC.

Di Malagasy Institute of Applied Reseach (Imra) don “test am for two pipo and e don cure dia treatment”, according to president Rajoelina.

Im add say “dis herbal tea dey give results in seven days”.

Oga Rajoelina say di kontri dey work wit foreign researchers to create di drink as injections.

Madagascar as at Wednesday 6 May, get 158 confam case of coronavirus and 99 pipo don recover from di sickness and nobody don die, according John Hopkins University.

Wetin you need to know about Artemisia

Artemisia na herbal plant. One of di local names na Wormwood.

Dis herb no dey new to pipo wey dey use am for different tins including for food and medicine. E popular with di treatment of malaria.

BBC Pidgin reporter Mansur Abubakar say e common for north with di Hausa pipo wey dey call di herb Tazargade.

Many pipo dey use am before for one ailment or di oda.

Infact as Madagascar announce say na Tazargade dem use for dia herbal cure some mosques for Kano don tell dia pipo to make use of am for dia body as protection.

Bottles of Covid-Organics

AFP
Di president ask researchers to come up wit a locally made product.

86 year old Aisha Musa wey dey stay Kano northwest Nigeria tell BBC say, all her life she dey use Tazargade herb for different things and e dey always dey by her side.

“As I dey tok to you now, Tazargade dey my side, I dey put am for water for my grandchildren to drink or burn am for charcoal for the smell to go round the house, e dey do a lot of things, cold and flu, fever and body pains.”Married women wey dey also face one problem or the other for bedroom dey also use am for north.

BBC Pidgin Covid 19 graphics

BBC

Di ‘cure’ dey safe?

World Health Organization (WHO) don advise pipo against di use of Covid-19 remedies wey dey untested.

“Africans deserve to use medicines wey dem test to di same standards as pipo for di rest of di world,” na so WHO, di United Nations health agency, tok in for statement on Monday.

“Even if therapies come from traditional practice and natural, to establish if e dey work and dey safe e dey important for am to go through serious clinical trials,” na so di statement add.

Meanwhile, di African Union say dem dey discuss wit Madagascar wit aim to obtain technical data regarding di safety and efficiency of di herbal remedy.

For attempt to reassure pipo and brush aside safety concerns, Rajoelina drink di Covid-Organics for di launch event and say e dey safe for children to take am.

Meanwhile, President Andry Rajoelina say di reason pipo dey doubt im kontri herbal remedy for Covid-19 na because di cure “comes from Africa”.

“If na European kontri dem discover dis remedy, shey many doubts go dey?”E tell France 24 and Radio France International inside interview.

”Di problem na say e come from Africa. And dem no fit accept say kontri like Madagascar, wey be one of di poorest kontries for di world, don discover dis formula to save di world,” e tok.