DURBAN – The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Wednesday launched what they described as “an expert advisory committee/panel” to deal with the science of traditional medicine therapies.
The organisations said via a statement that the panel would advise and support African countries on the safety, efficacy and quality of traditional medicine treatments, in an effort to enhance the research and development of the medicines for the treatment of the coronavirus.
“The 25-member Regional Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine for Covid-19 will support countries in collaborative efforts to conduct clinical trials of traditional medicines in compliance with international standards,” said the organisations.
Expertise on the continent was to be pooled, with the regional expert committee tasked with accelerating the pace and standard of research, particularly clinical, for new therapies against the virus.
The WHO said it recognised that traditional, complementary and alternative medicine had many benefits, and that Africa had a long history of traditional medicine and practitioners that provided care to populations.
“Interest in traditional medicine as potential remedies for Covid-19 is growing in Africa. As the world races to find treatment and vaccines against the virus, research into traditional and orthodox medicines as potential Covid-19 therapy must be grounded in science, and today marks an important step in supporting these endeavours,” said WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.
Dr John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa CDC and the WHO special envoy on Covid-19, said that there were ongoing and commendable efforts on the continent to find traditional therapies for the virus, and that rigorous clinical testing was critical.
According to the organisations, members of the regional expert committee were mainly from research institutions, national regulatory authorities, traditional medicine programmes, public health departments, academia, medical pharmacy professions and civil society organisations of member states. -Nampa/ANA