NIMR Receive Potential COVID-19 Drug Samples From Herbal Practitioners

The Nigeria Institute for Medical Research says it received three ‘drug specimens’ for the novel coronavirus pandemic from some notable herbal practitioners in the country.

The institute said this came in the wake of a claim by a professor of pharmacognosy, Prof. Maurice Iwu, that he had found a potential cure for the virus.

Speaking Director-General of the institute, Prof. Babatunde Salako, after Iwu’s claim that he had found a cure, the institute had been inundated with requests from three persons with similar claims.

“To further show their level of seriousness, they sent down specimens of the drugs.

“But there is no way we can give patients such drugs in this outbreak. This is not the time to test such drugs.

“Besides, these are medicines whose origin we don’t even know and there is no report of it being tried elsewhere before.

“I am not trying to disclaim the track record of those who produced them.

“I know they have track records in producing herbal medicines, but you can only experiment with those drugs outside outbreaks,” he stressed.

According to him, the world is still grappling with the pandemic as nobody is sure when the scourge would be over.

He was, however, optimistic that the recovery rate of COVID-19 survivors in Nigeria and the rest of the world is a promising indication that the virus would soon be a thing of the past.

“Nobody can specifically tell how long the coronavirus pandemic will last. But what is sure is that it will come and go. It also depends on our public health’s approach to it.

“With the recent lockdown to curb its spread of the virus, I think we are already on the last lap.

“If we say the human body is capable of taking care of mild infection within four weeks and we don’t go about spreading it, it will take care of itself.

“It means you won’t be able to infect others. If this is observed everywhere, it means that soon enough we won’t be talking about the virus any longer.

“But as it is, the virus has the ability to be infective. Only one person can infect between two to four people.

“The reason why the number is increasing was because people are still moving about and infecting others.

“Therefore, the lockdown is the last option that has to be taken before it gets out of hand,” he noted.

Asked when could possibly happen if the current lockdown imposed by the federal government fails to achieve its purpose, Salako shook his head slowly and muttered ‘There is nothing else to do.’

“In Italy, there was nothing they didn’t do. I think the virus was everywhere and had reached the maximum infection.

“For us in Nigeria, the earlier we carry out the lockdown in States where we recorded infection, the better.

“Also, States yet to record a case are strongly advised to be preparing as if they had it yesterday.

“Otherwise if they are basking in the euphoria of not having coronavirus case, it will bump on them one day and they will start running helter-skelter,” he warned.