HERBAL PRACTITIONERS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO USE COVID-19 PATIENTS AS "HUMAN GUINEA PIGS" - FG
The Federal Government has said it will not release COVID-19 patients to herbal practitioners to test the efficacy of their drugs.
This was disclosed by the Minister for Health, Osagie Ehanire, on Wednesday while briefing the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He said herbal practitioners had suggested medicines that can cure Coronavirus, but it has not been tested and might be poisonous.
He said traditional practitioners have been referred to Traditional Complementary Medicine Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and 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.
"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", he said.
Although, other countries in Africa, like Madagascar, have been trying some herbal medicines claimed to be a cure to COVID-19.
Earlier, WHO cautioned on the use of traditional medicine to cure Coronavirus after Madagascar launched herbal medicine said to be a cure for Coronavirus.
Ehanire noted that all herbal medicines must go through the research cycle to ensure they are not toxic.
He also said such drugs should be tested on animals before it can be certified.
"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.
"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," he said.
Currently, some academic and research institutions in Nigeria are working towards discovering medicines to cure Coronavirus.
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