Madagascar’s COVID-19 remedy is a challenge to Nigeria –Traditional Medicine Board

The Chairman, Anambra State Traditional Medicine Board, Rev Fr Raymond Arazu has described the invention of a herbal drug for COVID-19 by Madagascar as a challenge to Nigeria.

Father Arazu, a Holy Ghost father of the Catholic Church and a renowned traditional medicine practitioner of over 50 years in an interview with newsmen in Awka said he could not imagine a small nation like Madagascar boasting of a remedy for the novel Coronavirus, while Nigerian government is yet to accept the fact that some traditional medicine practitioners in Nigeria including himself have already invented a cure for the ailment.

President Muhammadu Buhari had recently ordered the purchase of Madagascar’s anti-COVID-19 remedy, a decision that has been criticized by a segment of the society.

Arazu told reporters that immediately after the news of the outbreak of the disease in China filtered out in December last year, his team, led by himself and his nephew, Mr. Reginald Arazu, a graduate of Chemistry, a known scientist and a traditional medicine practitioner went to work.

“We studied the symptoms of the disease and found out that it operates like every other viral disease, except a little difference, which is that it is airborne.

“We cure viral disease here, and all we needed to do was to look at its symptoms, and now ensure that we find drugs that can work more effectively in curing most of those symptoms exhibited by the patients of the virus.

“We came up with this drug (beckoning on a sachet powder on his table). We named it Chioma. We have treated patients who are showing symptoms of Coronavirus here, but when people come to consult with us and they tell us the symptoms, for the ones we suspect Coronavirus, we have treated them. But what we will not do is to treat anyone who comes to us knowing he has the Coronavirus. We simply tell them to contact NCDC because we are not allowed to treat them. But if someone comes and tells us the symptoms of his sickness, sometimes we suspect Coronavirus and we treat them and they get well.”

Arazu said other members of the Anambra Traditional Medicine Board have also invented supposed cure for the Coronavirus, and that they have met with the representatives of the Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano who has also promised to push forward the invention to the federal government for approval.

He regrets that the World Health Organisation (WHO), who knows nothing about the efficacy of herbal medicine, are condemning inventions from Africa for the novel virus when it has not been able to come up with a solution.

“They call us unorthodox medicine, but in the real sense, traditional drugs are the orthodox ones, while they are the unorthodox ones. Traditional Medicine has always been there from the beginning of creation. I have been in this business for over 50 years. I am a priest, I am not doing this to make money but my own way of helping humanity.”

 

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