By Francis Ogwo
While most countries around the world are making frantic moves towards importing vaccines from world’s manufacturing giants in the fight against the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, Tanzania is looking away into settling for local herbs in fighting the disease.
A spokesman at the Ministry of Health, Gerald Chamii, in an interview on Monday said, “There are no plans in place yet of importing vaccine for Covid-19, our health experts and scientists are still researching and undergoing clinical trials for the local herbs for covid-19.”
Chamii was of the view that the efficacy of the imported vaccines in achieving maximum protection may be questionable due to the production duration.
“It takes not less than six months to find a vaccine or cure for a certain disease. We have fared on our own since the pandemic spread, I am not sure if it is wise to have a vaccine imported and distributed to the citizens without undertaking clinical testing to approve if it is safe for our people,” Chamii added.
It would interest you to note that Tanzania is among the first countries in Africa to place orders for the much publicized Madagascar Covid herb in the fights against the virus.
President of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina, is the promoter-in-chief of the substance, marketed as Covid-Organics and sold in the form of a herbal infusion.
Artemisia annua has a long history in its native China, where scientists discovered an active ingredient that made the plant a front-line weapon in the fight against malaria. The substance has proven effectiveness against malaria, but no clinical trials have tested it against COVID-19, either as a cure or as a preventative. Little is known in Tanzania on the number of positive cases due to the government’s stun position on the virus.
Tanzania’s President, John Pombe Magufuli, had declared the East African country as Covid-free and did not place any curfew or confinement to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Countries like the United State have warned its citizens from traveling to Tanzania to avoid risks of contracting the virus.
In its update, the U.S. cautioned its citizen against traveling to East Africa, assigning Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi Level 4 alert.
The current population of the United Republic of Tanzania is 60,619,149 as of Monday, January 11, 2021, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
Tanzania 2020 population is estimated at 59,734,218 people at mid year according to UN data. This population is equivalent to 0.77% of the total world population.
On its COVID-19 status, Tanzania currently has 509 cases and 21 deaths.
