The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it welcomes innovations around the world, including repurposing drugs, traditional medicines and developing new therapies in the search for potential treatments for COVID-19. The WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo said this in a statement posted on its website yesterday. The global health organisation said it recognises that traditional, complementary and alternative medicine had many benefits.
“Africa has a long history of traditional medicine and practitioners that play an important role in providing care to populations. Medicinal plants such as Artemisia annua are being considered as possible treatments for COVID-19 and should be tested for efficacy and adverse side effects. Africans deserve to use medicines tested to the same standard. Even if therapies are derived from traditional practice and natural, establishing their efficacy and safety through rigorous clinical trials is critical,” WHO stated.
The announcement came as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Tuesday confirmed a total number of 148 new coronavirus cases and five deaths in the last 24 hours. Nigeria’s populated city Lagos and Kano states have the highest numbers. While Lagos recorded 43 new cases, Kano recorded 32 new cases. Zamfara witnessed a spike with 14 new cases announced while Abuja recorded 10 new cases. Katsina continue recording more cases as nine new cases were recorded in the state while Taraba State confirmed seven new cases. Borno and Ogun recorded six new cases each while Oyo State has five new cases, NCDC also announced three new cases in Edo, Kaduna and Bauchi. Two new cases were found in Adamawa and Gombe while Plateau, Sokoto and Kebbi had one new case each.
In total, Nigeria has now confirmed 2950 cases of COVID19, discharged 481 persons, while 98 persons have died. Nigeria began a “phased and gradual” easing of more than four weeks of lockdowns in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun state, President Muhammadu Buhari said in an address on Monday.
According to WHO, African governments, through their Ministers of Health, have adopted a resolution.
“The resolution urges Member States to produce evidence on the safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicine at the 50th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in 2000. Countries also agreed to undertake relevant research and require national medicines regulatory agencies to approve medicines in line with international standards, which include the product following a strict research protocol and undergoing tests and clinical trials.
“These studies normally involve hundreds of people under the monitoring of the national regulatory authorities and may take quite a few months in an expedited process. WHO is working with research institutions to select traditional medicine products that can be investigated for clinical efficacy and safety for COVID-19 treatment.”
In addition, it said the organisation would continue to support countries as they explore the role of traditional health practitioners in prevention, control and early detection of the virus as well as case referral to health facilities.
“Over the past two decades, WHO has been working with countries to ensure safe and effective traditional medicine development in Africa by providing financial resources and technical support. WHO has supported clinical trials, leading 14 countries to issue marketing authorisation for 89 traditional medicine products that have met international and national requirements for registration.
“Of these, 43 have been included in national essential medicines lists. These products are now part of the arsenal to treat patients with a wide range of diseases including malaria, opportunistic infections related to HIV, diabetes, sickle cell and hypertension. Almost all countries in the WHO African region have national traditional medicine policies, following support from WHO.”
WHO warns that as efforts are under way to find treatment for COVID-19, caution should be taken against misinformation, especially on social media, about the effectiveness of certain remedies.