“Africa is a great continent, with legends of heroes and heroines, powerful gods, not so good leaders and magical herbs that have the power to heal anything.” This is what I was told by a friend who is so crazy over the “magical herbal tea” from Madagascar. His face lightened up as he spoke of how Africa has found the cure for Covid19, a virus that has got the world at a standstill; but his voice began to crack as he spoke sadly of how the West would reject it simply because it is not their own. His story of being treated by his grandmother with a mixture of leaves was interesting but as he took an Africanist posture and forgot the science that had us on the phone, I had to hold him there.
By Emmanuel Zoboi Gokpolu, [email protected], Contributing Writer
On April 20th, Andry Rajoelina, the president of Madagascar openly gave his support to an organic concoction as a cure for patients infected with COVID 19. He stated that the concoction named COVID Organics (CVO) – a form of herbal tea that would be distributed for free to vulnerable countries and sold at a price to others. This, according to him would make Madagascar great.
The herbal tea is a product of the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA) and the National Pharmacology Research. Its complete ingredients remain unknown but it has Artemisia – a plant on the island which is used in the fight against malaria and Ravensara.
The herbal tea has however failed to get the backing of the World health organization or any renowned pharmaceutical group.
Here is why we must remain skeptical of the herbal tea:
It has undergone limited testing and there is no proof that it works. The herbal tea has been tested on 20 persons only, in a period of 3 weeks. In simple language, we do not know what we are ingesting or what it does to the body. Madagascar’s own National Academy of Medicine has doubts about the efficacy of the drug (the ability to produce the results we desire) and suggested setting up a system to monitor people who have taken the drug. The academy agrees that the drug has medicinal properties but does not go far to give its backing and argues that you should take the drug at your discretion.
The drug/Tea has not met the basic scientific guidelines for prescription and use.
According to the Food and Drug agency, every prescription drug must meet the following criteria; discovery/concept, preclinical research, clinical research, FDA review, FDA post-market safety monitoring.
This can take years, and many drugs get recalled due to safety concerns.
We do not know how this drug works, it’s short and long term side effects, its contraindications (Situations in which the drug should not be used) or even if it really cured patients as Madagascar claims.
The World Health Organization has warned that there is no proof of any cure of COVID19.
A lot of our friends have argued that the world health organization has not given her support to the use of “gojologbo” too, and they claim to have been cured by it. I do not doubt the healing powers of herbs but its use is frowned upon today because we do not understand the scientific principles behind them. Some of these herbs are hepatotoxic (toxic to the liver) and can lead to Cirrhosis of the liver. According to the CDC, Cirrhosis is the 10th leading killer in Liberia.
There is a well-documented history of fake cures during disease outbreaks.
It is an open secret that throughout our existence, mankind has been faced with several pandemics and people have used our desperation for a cure to gain fame and wealth. I will attempt to list a few:
Gambia president Yaya Jameh claimed to have had the cure for HIV/AIDs, which turned out to be a hoax.
During the outbreak of the Spanish flu which killed about 50 million people worldwide, people were given remedies such as Onions (with every meal) – Salt placed in nostrils – Smoke from sulfur, brown sugar on hot coals. These turned out to be of no use.
We could be setting the stage for anti-malaria drugs resistance.
According to the CDC, Malaria remains the number one killer in Liberia. It accounts for one million deaths worldwide, and nine out of ten of these deaths occur in Africa.
Most of the recent anti-malarial drugs have a component of Artemisinin which was used in making the Malagasy tea. In fact, the WHO’s first-line therapy for malaria worldwide has arteminism as a major component in them. Exposing the population to this drug might lead to resistance to the drug, and weaken our fight against Malaria.
It is a dangerous trend
Without scientific evidence that this drug/tea is a cure, accepting and distributing it would set a dangerous precedent, which would send people scrambling for local homemade remedies for diseases in the future. In as much as we believe in the power of the herb, we must remain cautious of how we pass the message to our hugely illiterate population.
We could also be giving our people false hopes that all is well and thus allowing them to go about their business as usual, and ignoring the social distancing rule. This could overwhelm out already fragile healthcare system and lead to more deaths.
As we race to a cure for covid19 we must remain cautious and follow the advice of experts, especially the WHO and our own National Public Health Institute. Our decisions must be based on proven principles, and the scientific discipline of managing outbreaks. We must never allow our sense of “Pan Africanism” and the delusion that we are hated to cloud our judgments and put ourselves at the mercy of potential poisons.
Lastly, there is a strong need to reintroduce science into our institutions of learning. Everything nowadays seems to be political even if it is basic science. Our government must also begin to fund research in plant based medicine, as we have a rich forest which might have a lot of answers.
Until proven otherwise, the herbal tea is not a cure, and we must not be used as a substitute for social distancing, and infection prevention and control. We can defeat this virus as we did with Ebola. Continue to stay at home and wash your hands!