COVID-19 death surge: Can traditional medicine and herbs help?
Opinions of Sunday, 2 August 2020 Columnist: Jerry K. Asomaning 2020-08-02 File photo Click to read all about coronavirus → Recorded deaths from the coronavirus neared 700,000 as the disease continue to spread like wild fire, surging back at hotspots in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Ghana has also been rocked by its deadliest surge since the start of the pandemic in March this year. Deaths linked to the coronavirus in Ghana set another new high last week with 182 deaths while confirmed COVID- 19 cases rose to 35,501. With the new corona virus cases and death toll keep surging, scientists are everywhere racing to find cure. They have tried for many years studying respiratory viral infections without finding any drugs. Indeed fighting viruses has become a difficult challenge for western/modern medicine. In the face of this and every epidemic, people turn to the western medicine for solution which has lot of undesirable side effects. That’s not to say western medicine shouldn’t be used at all but we can’ t continue to rely on illusion of frequent promises by western medicine and in fact the only one to find that magic cure to treat infectious disease Traditional medicine having played a major role in the fight against the coronavirus in China and other countries, many herbal doctors are pushing for roles in the fight against the pandemic across Africa. But all attempts to court the attention of respective governments and the medical community to give herbal medicine a chance have fallen on deaf ears. It is unfortunate that traditional medicine has been overlooked, and the initial exciting research findings have not been followed up with larger, more rigorous clinical trials. . We therefore can’t sit aloof and watch our people die each day while we also can provide them with same solution. Is there nothing we can do to combat the virus and to provide cure to our African people infected with this deadly disease other than allow people fall for the synthetic drugs such as Chloroquine and its little brother Hydroxychloroquine that can hardly cure common malaria but bring about a lot of unwanted adverse effects on our people. Considering western medicine drugs such as Chloroquine, Remdesvir etc are currently being tested and used to treat COVID-19, the same courtesy should be extended to herbal medicine with diverse mechanism of action and with limited side effects to treat or use as prophylactic against COVID-19 Both western and traditional medicine exhibits a diverse array of biological activities which can be effectively harnessed for combating the deadly coronavirus Nature’s cure relegated to the background Modern medicine seems to have prioritized white supremacy and we’ve seen the effects of that in the last few years. The long-standing bias against indigenous medicine over synthetic western medicine in the practice of medicine has ended all of us in a very ugly situation where diseases continue to thrive and overpower well known drugs. This has made our people highly vulnerable to highly infectious diseases. Despite numerous in-vitro and in vivo studies indicating potential benefits of herbal medicine in treating or managing infectious diseases both in the past and present, modern science continue to downplay such an important ancient knowledge. Modern science has done everything to discredit indigenous medicine and brainwash our people against relying on plants. Other methods of healing including herbal medicine are discarded because they are considered pseudo-scientific. This explained why though we are so helpless and frustrated in the face of a pandemic yet modern science will not turn to herbal medicine for help. We must place much premium on indigenous herbal medicine as we do on western medicine. Indigenous people don’t need western science to accept or legitimize our own method of healing. Unless modern medicine and indigenous medicine find a way to partner, we will never benefit from potential benefits of both methods. Whether backed by science or by years of use, whether accepted or ridicule by western medicine doctors, several clinical trials have confirmed some plants or herbal formulas may be safe and effective and indeed have antiviral properties. The underlying mechanization of traditional medicine in management of infectious diseases has also been investigated. Western medicine option for COVID-19 Western medicine currently has no cure or vaccine for COVID-19, which was first discovered in Wuhan in central china. Vaccination and drugs are currently being developed and investigated respectively by pharmaceuticals companies. The current treatment option for COVID-19 involves treating symptoms and oxygen therapy to keep the body in a stable condition in severe cases. Available treatment include repurposed anti-malaria medications such as Chloroquine and its cousin Hydrochloroquine ,Azithromycin, acetaminophen etc. Other medications currently being used in include Remdesivil, which has been given to hundreds of people infected with Ebola, which hasn’t been effective as scientists had hoped. It’s is important to note that treatment method for western medicine keeps changing daily as medication are being added or removed based on current happenings and therapeutic effect about those drugs . Traditional medicine and COVID-19 (Reasons why traditional medicine must also be given a chance) The world prefers to view indigenous medicine through the prism of culture rather than science. And so many young people especially those who have been exposed to ideas about the so called ‘science’ in their formal education tend to pay no attention to or even ridicule indigenous medicine. What we must know is that traditional medicine practices are not fixed but constantly evolving. Practitioners are always learning and adjusting their crafts and so their knowledge is ‘traditional in the sense that it is passed on from one person to another. Historical precedence for trusting herbal medicine First of all, there is a strong historical precedence for trusting in traditional medicine’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19 and other infectious disease as well. Throughout its history, Indigenous medicine has been used to treat whatever diseases were affecting our people. Before the advent of western medicine, indigenous medicine was the mainstream medicine. We have a long history of responding to novel epidemics through the use of herbal medicine. But in recent years, the status of the booming modern medicine took the lead and surpassed that of Indigenous medicine. Traditional medicine is out of the scene when treatments of acute and contagious diseases are concerned. It’s as if there were no epidemics in Africa in the past? We’ve experienced these sorts of plagues many times in our thousands of years of history. Our ancestors had their own laid down methods and steps in combating epidemics. Isolations and quarantine methods were applied during epidemics and they those methods are not new to our African people. For example, historical records have shown that the Chinese people have experienced more than 320 fighting epidemics since the Hun dynasty over 2000 years ago. They were able to curb those epidemics with Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and did not experience high death rate compared to epidemics such as the time of Black Death disease in Europe which wiped out 60% of the entire European population. I would end with a quote from Jaining Xianfeng, a respected Chinese doctor of Family Health –a top herbal hospital for affluent Chinese citizensIf traditional Chinese medicine was not effective, the Chinese people would already be destroyed. Mechanism of action between Herbal and Western medicines compared First of all, indigenous medicine is fundamentally different from bioscience in terms of it formulation. Traditional medicine is formulated by combining many ingredients in other to tackle not only the specific symptoms that the patient is experiencing, but also treat the underlying cases. Unlike Western medicine which are formulated to kill only the causative pathogen (whether virus or bacteria), Indigenous medicine aims at engaging the innate immune and healing responses of the patient. And this unique formulation method places indigenous medicine above western medicine .This ,therefore makes indigenous medicine uniquely suited to tackling novel infectious diseases such as coronavirus , because it’s not only aimed at combating the viruses or the bacteria but also seek to strengthening the body’s effective immune response. Secondly, different comparative studies have found many plant compounds that may be more effective and has little adverse effects than synthetic anti-malaria drugs such as Chloroquine and its less toxic version Hydroxychloroquine, antiretroviral drugs like azidothymidine, azithromycin- an antibiotics drug, ramsesivir. For example, fractions of an antimalarial leaf extract of the neem tree ( Azadirachta indica) were compared with those of chloroquine, in in-vitro assays against plasmodium faciparum. A comparative study by J.Udeinya et al affiliated to the Department of Pharmacology, Howard University College of Medicine –USA concluded that anti-malaria Neem- leaf extract not only cure chloroquine- resistant malaria but significantly reduce transmission which makes it superior to chloroquine. I am not against Chloroquine being used to treat SARS-Cov-2(COVID-19) and I am also aware that it will not be via the same mechanism by which the drug functions as anti-malaria. Scientists have detailed biochemical properties of Chloroquine (which is synthetic of quinine derived from an ancient Peruvian plant, Cinchona) that indicate it could be used against some viral infections. But the comparison is necessary to remind all of us to also place premium on plant medicines which has proven to be potent sources of anti-viral agents with same major advantage over conventional medicine. Broad therapeutic potency and limited side effects advantage Medicinal plants have proven to be potent sources of antiviral agents with some major advantages over western drugs due to their broad therapeutic potency and limited side effects. The growing drug resistance, partly caused by misuse of medications, has rendered several antibiotics and other life-saving drugs useless. Herbal medicines on the other hand are effective in prevention and supporting optimal physiological function support, as well as to relieve symptoms, and support full recovery with few or no side effects. Chloroquine and Hydrooxychloroquine are notably toxic. It’s known to cause uncomplicated itching, irreversible eye and heart damage, allergic response, stomach troubles etc. It can even lead to death as low as 2 grams per day. List of some herbal plants with Antiviral activity There is a history of success with some herbs in traditional medicine for infectious disease. Some of these herbs have been confirmed in modern research, evaluated and reported to have strong antiviral activity, During the past few years, there have been numerous studies (both in vitro and in vivo) in different parts of the globe to evaluate the anti-viral activity of medicinal plants. Here, I summarize few African herbal plants having medicinal properties with a variety of chemical constituents which have the ability; A. to inhibit the replication cycle of various types of DNA or RNA viruses even in a sterile environment outside the bodyB. ability of herbs in stimulating the body’s immune response to effectively fight off the virus.1. Strophanthus gratus - Terponoids,sesquiterpene,teiterpenoids (ursolic acid, maslinic acid and saponin) found in Ghanaian plant Strophanthus gratus have been studied and reported to have membrane mediated mechanism of action inhibiting viral DNA systhesis. It’s also one of the best herbs known to boost the immune system of the body. Since it’s rich in Vitamin C, it helps raise the body's resistance to flu and other viruses.2. Azadiractca indica (neem) has traditionally been used as an antiviral and the leaf extract was found to be active against a number of virus such as smallpox (DNA), poxvirus (DNA), chicken pox (DNA), poliomyelitis (RNA) and herpes virus in animal and laboratory research (DNA).3. Allium sativum (Garlic )- Garlic antiviral effects have been well studied. It contains many antiviral compounds which are effective against cold viruses, herpes simplex types 1 and 2, para-influenza virus type 3 etc. Garlic has natural antiviral, antibacterial, and immune?boosting properties as well as possessing some anti-inflammatory properties4. Phyllanthus amarus- Aqueous extract showing strong antiviral activity of this plant have also been well studied. In recent years substantial progress on chemical and pharmacological properties, as well as few clinical studies of Phyllanthus amarus have been made.5. Psidium guajava (Guava.)The plant has been extensively studied in terms of pharmacological activity of its major components, and the results indicate potent anti-viral activities.6. Artemisia annua (Chinese wormwood)7. Hibiscus tea ( Sobolo)- Studies show that hibiscus tea extracts contains potent antiviral properties like anthocyanins which help fight not only cold and flu but also effective in fighting other viral infections such as influenza and SARS CoV18. Ocimum basilicum-9. Plumbago zeylani10. Licorice Conclusion Further human studies are still needed to establish the exact mechanism of action of these plants. There is some evidence to prove that they inhibit viral replication, and so minimizes the impact of viral infections. Again, these plants can serve as a source of promising future antiviral drugs. Since the gene sequence of COVID-19 has been reported to having high similarities between the main proteins same as in SARS and MERS and herbal remedies having played an important role in those epidemics, herbal medicine should become a valuable guide to finding cure for COVIDTraditional medicine has much to offer global health. Crude plant extracts contain diversity of constituents that may exert their antiviral effect either singularly or in concert with each other. Disclaimer GhanaWeb is not responsible for the reportage or opinions of contributors published on the website. Read our disclaimer. Send your news stories to and via WhatsApp on +233 55 2699 625.
Bill Gates says 3 coronavirus treatments being tested now 'could cut the death rate dramatically.' They may be available within months.
© Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times; Samantha Lee/Business Insider; Robyn Beck/AFP via Ge... Antibodies for the coronavirus sometimes show up in the blood of people who've had COVID-19, but it's possible they could also be given to patients therapeutically to help fight the virus. Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times; Samantha Lee/Business Insider; Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Bill Gates is hopeful that eventually there will be an effective coronavirus vaccine, but "we may need a second-generation" vaccine, he said, which could take a while. In the near term, treatments could "cut the death rate quite dramatically, which would be a very big deal," he said. Gates said antiviral drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and steroids are all promising treatments that could be ready to go much sooner than vaccines, possibly in a matter of months. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Bill Gates isn't expecting a highly protective coronavirus vaccine to be ready anytime soon. "The very first vaccine won't be like a lot of vaccines, where it's a 100% transmission-blocking and 100% avoids the person who gets the vaccine getting sick," the billionaire philanthropist told Insider. Vaccine trials take months, they don't have to create completely effective inoculations, and they won't help protect people who are already sick. That's why Gates is more excited, in the immediate term, about coronavirus therapeutics. "It's much easier to test a therapeutic than it is a vaccine," he said during a wide-ranging chat earlier this week. His best guess is that there are three types of therapeutic treatments that could be available for coronavirus patients in just a "few months." It's not quite a reason to herald the end of the pandemic, but it's a start. "It doesn't let you go to sporting events or hang out at the bars," he said. "You gotta get herd immunity [through vaccination] before you really do that." But these treatments, if shown effective at helping people recover faster and better from the virus, could be a game changer for the mounting coronavirus death toll. Already, more than 150,000 people are dead from the coronavirus in the US. Several estimates suggest about 40% of those deaths are linked to nursing homes. "These things where nursing homes get infected, and very high death rates, the therapeutics will make a big difference there," he said. Here's a breakdown of the three kinds of treatments Gates is most excited about. Antiviral drugs © Ulrich Perrey/Pool/AFP/Getty Images Vials of Remdesivir. Ulrich Perrey/Pool/AFP/Getty Images Antivirals (as the name suggests) aim to act against a virus. They do this by preventing the virus from multiplying and reproducing. (The antiviral Tamiflu, for example, can help make flu infections shorter and less severe, if taken early on.) One antiviral drug being used right now to treat the coronavirus is Remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral and once failed Ebola treatment. Studies suggest it helps shorten coronavirus recovery time in patients who are very ill. In the US, Remdesivir is recommended only for emergency use in hospitals (it's approved in Japan). It is delivered intravenously. Remdesivir maker Gilead announced on July 10 that its early trial results suggest the drug may cut hospitalized patients' risk of death by 62%, when compared with the standard of care, calling it "an important finding that requires confirmation." More research on the drug is being conducted on thousands more hospitalized coronavirus patients, with results expected "in the coming months," the company said in a release. Gates said he envisioned "reformulating Remdesivir to be easier to give," as well as getting other antiviral drugs tested for the coronavirus. Corticosteroids © Associated Press Dexamethasone. Associated Press Corticosteroids are drugs that are similar to our natural human hormone, cortisol. These steroids can help reduce inflammation and suppress the immune system, curbing a body's reaction to the coronavirus, and helping prevent organ failure. One steroid Gates is excited about for treating the coronavirus is the cheap steroid dexamethasone, which some early studies suggest may reduce the risk of death in severely ill coronavirus patients. The drug is not recommended for patients with milder infections as it could prevent the immune system, in those cases, from "doing its job," Dr. Nina Shah, a blood cancer physician and associate professor of medicine at UCSF Health, previously told Insider. "Our foundation funded the UK trial that found dexamethasone," Gates said. "Trials have been pretty uncoordinated in the US, so things haven't gone as quickly as we expected." The dexamethasone Recovery trial in the UK started in March, and by June, investigators announced their preliminary finding that "dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-third in ventilated patients." "Given the public health importance of these results, we are now working to publish the full details as soon as possible," they said in a press release. Monoclonal antibodies © Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images A coronavirus-antibody rapid serological test. Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images Monoclonal antibodies are a manufactured kind of protection, cloned from the most potent natural protective antibodies that people who have had the virus before have developed. "There's three or four, including Regeneron, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and others, that we'll have data on before the end of the year," Gates said of the lab-created antibody treatments. "That, in combination with the antivirals, could cut the death rate quite dramatically, which would be a very big deal." The fact that these three kinds of coronavirus treatment trials might yield results "within a few months" is why Gates feels the field of therapeutics is "getting less attention than maybe it deserves," versus vaccines. "At least some of those are likely to work before the end of the year," he said. "We're trying to make sure that the ease of giving them, and the cost, and the availability, takes care of the entire world." Gallery: What is hepatitis, and how can it be treated? (StarsInsider)
New Treatment for Covid-19 Shows Promise, but Scientists Urge Caution
LONDON — A British drug company said Monday that an inhaled form of a commonly used medicine could slash the odds of Covid-19 patients becoming severely ill, a sliver of good news in the race to find treatments that was met by scientists with equal measures of caution and cheer. The drug, based on interferon beta, a protein naturally produced by the body to orchestrate its response to viruses, has become the focus of intensifying efforts in Britain, China and the United States to treat Covid-19 patients. Scientists have found that the coronavirus attacks the body in part by blocking its natural interferon response, disarming cells that would otherwise be alerting neighboring cells to activate their own genes and fortify themselves against the invading virus. In theory, administering interferon to patients could invigorate its defenses in the early stages of illness. But giving patients interferon without eliciting serious side effects has proved challenging. The symptoms of a seasonal flu, for example, are largely produced by the mobilization of the body’s interferon response, scientists said. The British drug company, Synairgen, tried to circumvent that problem by developing an inhaled form of interferon that directly targets cells in the lungs, rather than an injection, which can produce more intense side effects. It conducted a small, double-blind trial on patients hospitalized with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, in nine British hospitals. The initial results, announced in a brief news release but not yet peer reviewed or published, were promising: The inhaled form of interferon beta tested by Synairgen was shown to reduce the odds of hospitalized patients becoming severely ill — needing ventilation, for example — by 79 percent compared with patients who received a placebo. But the significance of the findings was seriously limited — and, in the view of some scientists, undercut — by the small size of the trial. It involved only 101 patients, Synairgen said, making it difficult to know for certain how beneficial the drug was or how it affected patients differently. The study could not rule out that the drug was only marginally effective. The company also fell short of the number of patients it originally said in a filing on a U.S. government website that it intended to enroll. That raised concerns among scientists that the company had analyzed the results earlier than it should have, once the treatment appeared to be effective. They said a much larger randomized trial was needed before they could assess the drug. Scientists also noted that while injectable interferon has historically been used to treat hepatitis infections, the inhaled form of treatment was not yet licensed or widely available. Still, amid a crisis caused by a disease with no known cure, the results were tantalizing. If the finding is borne out, it may represent one of the most significant breakthroughs to date in treating Covid-19 patients, virologists said. “If there is the material to distribute it to the population, and you could keep the price down, this could absolutely be a game changer,” said Benjamin tenOever, a professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “I don’t doubt it will work. I just don’t know how feasible it is.” Professor tenOever was a co-author of a study in May in Cell, a scientific journal, about how the virus blocks the body’s interferon response. He said evidence was piling up that administering interferon could help limit the replication of the virus, especially in the early stages of illness, fending the virus off for long enough that a second set of genes could successfully eradicate it. In hamsters, Professor tenOever said, there were signs that interferon cleared the virus and blocked onward transmission. In China, the early results of a study among medical workers also showed promise, concluding that interferon nasal drops “may effectively prevent Covid-19 in medical staff.” The study found that the drops “have potential promise for protecting susceptible healthy people during the coronavirus pandemic.” Among the most pressing challenges for British and American researchers studying interferon is the difficulty in recruiting patients in places where caseloads have fallen. Professor tenOever said one clinical trial planned at Mount Sinai had to be scuppered after coronavirus beds emptied out. Synairgen, whose share price soared after it announced the results on Monday, is now struggling to recruit Covid-19 patients who are at home. Stuart Neil, a professor of virology at King’s College London, said there had been fears early in the pandemic that giving interferon to patients could worsen the over-aggressive immune response that was itself sickening some of them. But more recent findings have indicated that, in fact, infected patients mount a limited interferon response on their own. That insight has laid the groundwork for studies like Synairgen’s. The Coronavirus Outbreak ›Frequently Asked Questions Updated July 27, 2020 Should I refinance my mortgage? It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards. What is school going to look like in September? It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community. Is the coronavirus airborne? The coronavirus can stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, mounting scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants. It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization. What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen? So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement. “It’s very exciting,” Professor Neil said. “By basically inhaling the interferon into the site of infection, it looks like you’re taking the edge off the virus.” Synairgen said that over the two-week treatment period, patients receiving the interferon beta drug were twice as likely as patients who received a placebo to recover to the point where they were no longer limited by their illness. The company also said that breathlessness was lower in patients receiving the drug. But the sparsely detailed news release announcing the findings left many questions unanswered. Among other concerns, scientists noted that the company was mostly reporting outcomes over the course of a two-week treatment period only. They warned that things could change later. Synairgen, founded by researchers at the University of Southampton in southern England, said that as a listed company, it was obligated by stock market rules to report the early results of its trial. The company said that it had originally developed the inhaled form of interferon for patients who are especially susceptible to seasonal colds and the flu, among them people with asthma and with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. “We have recognized that as a broad spectrum antiviral, it could always have a place if an unwanted, highly pathogenic virus emerged,” Richard Marsden, the chief executive of Synairgen, told reporters on Monday. He said the company would work with regulators to make progress on the development of the drug as quickly as possible. Scientists believe the interferon drug will work most effectively on patients who are not yet seriously ill. By contrast, another drug, dexamethasone, has been shown to help more severely ill patients. Dexamethasone is already being used at American and British hospitals to treat coronavirus patients, doctors have said, and the World Health Organization called for accelerating production to ensure an adequate supply. But the initial reports by scientists of the benefits of dexamethasone also showed the hazards of conducting science by news release. When the full study about dexamethasone was posted online — after doctors had already begun prescribing it — it reported that while the drug seems to help patients in dire condition, it might be risky for patients with milder illness.
