Malawi govt warns herbalists over fake coronavirus cure
Government has issued a stern warning to herbalists against claiming they have the cure for coronavirus.
A senior official in the ministry of health Dr Nedson Fosiko said coronavirus is a new disease in the world therefore no one should claim to have discovered its cure.
“I am sure those herbalists claiming to have the cure risk being banned from practising,” he said.
He said just like HIV and AIDS, the disease has no cure.
“No one has come to us with medicine to be tested. We have no cure yet for the disease,” he said.
Fosiko said people should continue with the strict preventive measures to avoid the disease, such as washing hands with soap.
There are eight cases of coronavirus in the country with one death.
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With due respect, Sir, do you know we have a whole four-year degree programme on Indigenous Knowledge Systems at some university in Malawi? What use is that knowledge when everyone still thinks that sources of patented medicines have nothing to do with genetic resources and other plant materials from our local areas? The approach to Covid-19 is three-fold: (1) quality hygiene (preserve of public health); (2) containment or treating of symptoms (largely the preserve of formal clinical medicine though resting, adequate aeration or ventilation can also fall under quality hygiene); and (3) nutrition (for example, encouraging high intake of clean fluids and food rich in zinc, e.g. meat, beans, macadamia, pumpkin seeds, broccoli). Indigenous knowledge could help on treatment of symptoms if you had incorporated personnel knowledgeable in intellectual property especially on Indegenous Knowledge. I think the right way is to create an avenue for research to study the various claims by the locals while warning them against testing their unproven claims on any individual.
I am not sure what the composition of the Covid-19 Taskforce is, but certainly, you need a person or two from universities which offer Indegenous Knowledge Systems to detail you on various research done so far on ailments which share SOME characteristics with this novel disease. In the West currently, they are using a diverse of approaches including testing on medicines used to treat completely different diseases, e.g. malaria, and combinations of drugs. Besides, the exigencies of this pandemic have necessitated that they should cut corners in terms of sharing of data, reduction in the rigour and routine quality assurance steps in clinical trials, et al. So, let us not dismiss IKS entirely; let us bring it to some formal test while warning them against doing it on their own.
Covid-19 has no cure, you’re right, but who knows we could land on a local remedy to assuage (minimise) the intensity? After all, the majority of patented Western pharmaceuticals are derived from our remedies, which they patent, protecting them for 20-25 yrs during which we pay through the nose for something from our own backyard. And even after the expiry of such patents too many protocols and excuses by the West stand in the way, frustrating efforts by African nations to make cheap generic drugs (copy of original brands) from those expired patents. So, first find out whether these claims carry any weight at all.