Setback For African Solution As Madagasgar's Organics are Said Can't Cure COVID-19

      

Madagascar’s coronavirus herbal concoction,known as COVID-19 Organics, is not as potent as claimed to cure the COVID-19 pandemic, said Nigeria’s state-run pharmaceutical research institute

In a report presented to the health

Ministry on Sunday, July 19. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) said safety studies show that Covid-Organics (CVO) do not alter the normal physiology of the animals.

In April, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the CVO — an organic herbal concoction — claiming that it could prevent and cure patients of the novel coronavirus.

Obi Adigwe, NIPRD’s director general, said Madagascar officials were hiding CVO analysis.

"They are hiding a lot of things and I think it is possible that they know that they don’t have strong science backing up their claim. But our own analysis does not show any proof that it can cure COVID-19,” he said.

Adigwe indicated that the analysis they presented in the report is more detailed than what they received from Madagascar.

" CVO reduced cough frequency with the maximum dose tested, producing an effect equivalent to that produced by the centrally acting cough-suppressant, dihydrocodeine,” he added.

Madagascar’s President had urged citizens to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus by drinking CVO.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against the use of CVO without medical supervision and warned against self-medication.

The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has also donated CVO to many other African countries.

Earlier this month, Madagascar authorities re-imposed a total lockdown in the Analamanga region due to the increase in COVID-19 cases. It has also opened new coronavirus treatment centers.

     

The Vaccine developed By Russia:In Clinical Trials

       

Meanwhile, there is competition among the countries to be the first to find a vaccine against COVID-19. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 150 vaccine candidates are under development across the world, out of which around 17 are being tested on humans. While many experts are of the opinion that the COVID-19 vaccine might not be possible this year, some countries are claiming to release one by September. Russia recently claimed that it is the first nation to finish human trials for the COVID-19 vaccine. Now, the country’s health minister Mikhail Murashko has declared that they will make the vaccine available to the general public before it clears the last phase of clinical trials, reported a Russian news agency.

Speaking to reporters during a working trip to the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, Murashko indicated that additional clinical research of the approved vaccine will be conducted simultaneously – the report stated.

That vaccine will begin phase 3 trials in thousands of people on Aug. 3 in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, indicated another media report quoting Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the government-backed Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Russia is targeting to produce 30 million doses domestically and 170 million abroad in 2020 and Dmitriev said that five countries have already showed interest in producing the vaccine.

A few days ago, Russia’s Sechenov University announced that it had successfully completed clinical trials of the world’s first vaccine for the novel coronavirus.  The vaccine is developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.

Alexander Lukashev, the director of Sechenov’s Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases, told a news agency that the trials had declared the vaccine’s safety on human health.

Chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk had also told Russian news agency TASS last week the trial results have proved that the vaccine is safe and is working. She also claimed added that the vaccine will be discharged soon but didn’t specified when it would enter the commercial production stage.

The first two trials at Sechenov University were conducted on two groups of volunteers – the first test was done on 18 volunteers and the second one on 20 volunteers. After the successful completion of the trails, the volunteers were then discharged on July 15 and July 20.

Earlier in a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry disclosed that the volunteers given the COVID-19 vaccine were developing immunity to the coronavirus.

The data received by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology shows that volunteers of the first and second groups are forming an immune response after injections of the vaccine against the coronavirus,” IANS quoted the statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Meanwhile, the United States, Britain and Canada have accused Russian state intelligence of hacking international research centers supervising COVID-19 vaccine development.

However, Director of the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute, Alexander Gintsburg has dismissed the allegations. Gintsburg told a news agency on Friday that their vaccine is “patented and more advanced than Western competitors and will be happy to share the technology with foreign colleagues, in case they require.”

"Most probably, if there is any borrowing, it will be our immunization scheme to be borrowed, and we will be happy to share our hacks with the colleagues, should they need,” ANI quoted him as saying.

According to Gintsburg, Gamaleya has been developing the technology used to create the coronavirus vaccine for the past 25 years.