President of the Ghana Association of Medical Herbalists, Dr.Anthony Mensah, has called on the Ministry of Health to facilitate the testing and approval processes of herbal drugs submitted by the Association in order to fight the novel Coronavirus disease.
According to him, the herbal medicines submitted to the Ministry of Health have already been tested by the Mampong Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine and has been registered by the Food and Drugs Authority.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on Happy 98.9FM, he disclosed that the medicines have already been admitted to Coronavirus patients and the results have been positive.
“What bothers us is that people have contracted the COVID-19 who are suffering. Even those who are asymptomatic might develop symptoms later. So at this point, medicines that have been registered should be used to increase our recovery rate. Our recovery rate compared to the cases are low”, he added.
He commented also that even though the Association had not received any formal information on the importation of the Madagascar drug, Covid Organics, the Association was concerned about human lives and a quick cure to the novel Coronavirus disease. And as such, they will welcome the drug if it helps save human lives.
While he was unhappy about the delay in approval of the herbal medicines by the Ministry of Health, he was hopeful that the Association will receive a response soon.
“It has been a month and two weeks since we sent the samples to the Ministry of Health. It took three weeks for the medicine to leave the Ministry to Akuapem Mampong for research. We don’t know why it took three weeks at the ministry. And we don’t know the specific research they are doing. What we know is that we have been promised that very soon, we will hear from them”, he added.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah