Madagascar, a South African country, branded as the group of least developed countries by the United Nations and a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU), on April 21 launched a herbal medicine believed to cure and prevent coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus disease appeared first in 2019 in Wuhan city in China. The disease was, first identified in Wuhan and Hubei, both in China early December 2019. The original cause still unknown, it remains a puzzle and an enigma for the world scientific community.
Though World Health Organsiation there is no cure for COVID-19, Malagasy Institute of Applied Research has developed the herbal medicine and branded COVID-Organics, contains Artemisia- a plant on the Island used in the fight against malaria.
The president of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina said, “all trials and tests have been conducted and its effectiveness in reducing the elimination of symptoms have been proven for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 in Madagascar.”
“Tests have been carried out — two people have now been cured by this treatment,” Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and journalists at the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), which developed the beverage.
“This herbal tea gives results in seven days. I will be the first to drink this today, in front of you, to show you that this product cures and does not kill,” stressed Rajoelina.
Since school children in Madagascar returned to school on Wednesday, a presidential decree prior to their resumption stated that COVID- Organics is mandatory for them. The president also shared that the medicine had cured two COVID-19 cases.
“The COVID-Organics will be distributed free of charge to our most vulnerable compatriots and sold at very low prices to others. All profits will be donated to IMRA to finance scientific research,” the president wrote on Twitter.
“I’m convinced that, in fact, history will prove us, but today there are already two cases that have been cured with the COVID-organics, but we’ll actually see what happens next.”
“COVID Organics will be used in profilaxis, i.e. preventive, but clinical observations have shown a trend towards its effectiveness in curative, other clinical studies are currently underway,” he stressed at the launch.
WHO’s response
In response to the launch of COVID-Organics, WHO told the BBC in a statement that they did not “recommend self-medication with any medicines as prevention or cure for COVID-19.”
WHO had earlier on warned governments not to treat coronavirus patients with medications not scientifically proven to treat the virus.
The President’s Chief of Staff, Rosa Ranoromaro, said that although Mr. Rajoelina was aware of WHO’s warnings, “he has a duty to Malagasy people.”
Madagascar has a total of 121 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 59 recoveries, and no death.
Meanwhile, Senegal’s Institute Pasteur de Dakar has developed a Covid-19 testing kit that costs $1 and can deliver results in about 10 minutes.
The institute was able to achieve this by drawing from a wealth of experience gathered from developing vaccines and treatments for several ailments including yellow fever and dengue.
