Hopes by traditional practitioners that they may soon be allowed to use some of their herbal products on coronavirus [COVID-19] was on Wednesday dashed by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire.
Speaking at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 press briefing, the health minister said many traditional medicines suggested by some herbal practitioners in the country as cures for COVID-19 had not been tested and might be toxic.
The minister, who spoke amid criticism that the Federal Government was not looking inward in search of the COVID-19 cure, said the traditional cures must first be tested on animals and certified not to be toxic.
He said the Federal Government would not give COVID-19 patients to traditional or alternative medical practitioners to test the efficacy of their drugs as there were no “human guinea pigs.”
He said,
“On the cure of COVID-19, the traditional medicines that have been given to us or rather that people said they had, we have referred them to Traditional Medicine Complementary Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and to the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development to evaluate.
“But some of them, who have written to me that they have medicines, have asked me to give them 10 patients so that they can cure them. They say ‘give me 10, give me one and I will cure them, and you will see that it works.’
“But we don’t do it like that in medicine. We don’t have human guinea pigs. Anybody who knows that he or she has a cure must prove to me that it was tried and it worked. Many of the cures are not tested on anyone at all.”
“Of course, I am not giving them anyone to go and carry out their tests. That is why they have to go through the research cycle to make sure that their medicines are not toxic and you can also check the efficacy. So, those are things that will be tested.
“Any kind of medicine can be toxic. The toxicity can be checked and you can also check the efficacy. And as you know, you have to try it on animals such as rats and mouse, before it is certified.”
Ehanire added that the Federal Government would mandate states to improve the conditions of the isolation centres because of the complaints about the poor feeding and living conditions in some of the centres.
He also said the Federal Government was making efforts to get more materials for COVID-19 treatment.
He said the PTF was preparing to have isolation and ICU centres in all states.
The health minister also directed state governments to increase the number of isolation centres as the Nigerian cases of COVID-19 soared close to 3,000.
The health minister added that the Federal Government had taken note of several complaints about the turnaround time to get the results of the COVID-19 tests.
