The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said that many traditional medicines that were being 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 by herbal practitioners must first be tested on animals and certified not to be toxic.

He  said   the Federal Government would not give COVID-19 patients to herbal 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.

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“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.

The minister stated, “We are increasing our intensive care units beds and ventilators. We have some on order and we are also getting from countries. The United States President promised Nigeria some ventilators.

“We also got a letter that the government of China is sending us another load of relief materials to attend to COVID-19. So it is a question of fixing them particularly in our teaching hospitals and federal medical centres.

“Without drawing any conclusion, the number of persons who have required ventilators so far is very few.

“The fatalities arising from COVID-19 are overwhelmingly connected to pre-existing conditions such as kidney disease, high blood pressure, cancer and tuberculosis. They are connected to age and underlying conditions.

He said the PTF was preparing to have isolation and ICU centres in all states.

The health minister 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.

Ehanire said, “While we are striving to increase our testing capacity, we have noted the complaints about turnaround time to get the results of tests conducted. We are doing what we can to resolve them.”

The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, in his address, highlighted the importance of data gathering and analysis to the COVID-19 national response.

Ihekweazu explained that after the Ebola outbreak, one of the biggest lessons learnt was that the country needed to collect electronic information on infectious diseases.

On efforts to increase the country’s testing capacity, Ihekweazu said, “This week, we have a team looking at Port Harcourt, Owerri and Anambra, as well as another team in Gombe and Yola. Very soon, we will have five more labs.”

The National Coordinator, PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, appealed to state governments, particularly those that had yet to ensure the provision of isolation facilities, to make sure they had, at least, 300 beds available.