In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, people from Zimbabwe to Tanzania turned to little-known home remedies for the disease. But even as African countries now begin to roll out vaccine programs, many may still stick to traditional treatments.
middle Rapid increase in the number of serious infectionsZimbabwe has started vaccinating health workers and front-line workers after people traveled over the Christmas season from South Africa, where the new variant is prevalent. last week, about 200,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine were donated. Meanwhile, Ghana has received its first vaccine doses from Covax, an initiative to help low- and middle-income countries with coronavirus vaccinations.
But between fears of new vaccines and shortages across the continent, interviews in Zimbabwe suggest that many still plan to, and perhaps must, rely on herbal remedies.
Itai Rushike, executive director of the Zimbabwe Community Working Group on Health, a network of community-based organizations, said people in this country often first seek traditional treatment, especially before seeking modern medical services. It states that it is common to consult a family member or use home remedies to treat common ailments. For people living in rural areas far from medical health facilities.
“Vaccine misinformation and skepticism appear to have made the majority of Zimbabweans more trusting of home remedies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19-related illnesses, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation. It’s getting worse,” Rusike said. This was a view expressed to Quartz by the general public as well as other medical professionals.
This preference is also shaped by government support for herbal remedies as a treatment for Covid-19 in the early months of the pandemic last year, a move that doctors It has been criticized and now could hamper vaccination efforts.
Government boosts home treatment for new coronavirus infection
When Zimbabwe suffered its first death from coronavirus in March last year, it was in the midst of its worst economic crisis in decades, with its health system overwhelmed by shortages of medicines and protective equipment.
In April 2020, the Zimbabwean government Certified Traditional Herbalist An alternative to then-little-known World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for respiratory illnesses was the use of herbs to treat coronavirus infections.
Not just Zimbabwe: other African countries Madagascar etc. And Tanzania authorized and promoted the use of home remedies to treat COVID-19 without research.
In April 2020, Madagascar’s President Andriy Rajoelina launched a bottled herbal tea. According to the Madagascar Applied Research Institute, which developed the drink, the herbal medicine is primarily produced from Artemisia annua, a plant with proven efficacy against malaria.Tanzanian President John Magufuli immediately Declaring a country free of coronavirus infections Last June, it also ordered a shipment of herbal medicine from Madagascar to treat a respiratory illness.
In Zimbabwe, a growing number of traders are packaging and selling Zumbani tea leaves in urban areas to treat symptoms related to the coronavirus. This woody shrub is scientifically known as: Lippia javanicaa plant in the verbena family, often used to treat fevers and influenza.
Africa University in eastern Zimbabwe is developing cough drops made from the zumbani plant.
“The cough drops will not be sold as a medicine for now, but as a herbal medicine, and are expected to be commercially available within a month,” an African University official told Quartz Africa.
Although there is currently no research showing that these drugs are effective in treating or preventing COVID-19, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Health Constantino Chiwenga has announced that traditional medicine and It advocates for medical facilities to check the effectiveness of herbs. But the government’s support for these relief measures, coupled with vaccine skepticism that even officials have expressed, could hinder Zimbabwe’s goal of vaccinating 60% of its population. The government has not announced when that goal will be achieved.
High levels of skepticism about coronavirus vaccines
The Covax program promises to vaccinate at least 20% of Africa’s population. or about 300 million peopleby the end of this year.
In Zimbabwe, as in many African countries, vaccine hesitancy over imported vaccines could curtail COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, due to a mix of lack of information, misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines. be.
In particular, the donated Chinese vaccines caused anxiety That’s because it has not been approved by the World Health Organization and has a lower efficacy rate than the shots developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
But more broadly, Africans are being treated as guinea pigs for coronavirus vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies, even though the vaccines underwent human trials in multiple countries before being used in Africa. , front-line workers and religious groups have voiced their concerns.
The government has also not effectively communicated information about the vaccines and how they have been tested and reviewed by multiple regulatory agencies.
“For any vaccination program to be effective, it needs a clear and effective communication plan, and that has not been the case in Zimbabwe,” said Norman Matara, executive director of the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights Association. “People don’t have information about these vaccines, so there’s a fear of the unknown.”
Adding to the medical community’s concerns, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus are spreading on popular social media platforms not only to the general public but also to highly influential religious leaders and politicians. This means that it is also being spread by households.
Oppa Muchinguri, Minister of Defence, Zimbabwe; who said last year COVID-19 is God’s punishment for the United States and its allies, who have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and have expressed strong resistance to imported vaccines, even though Zimbabwe has no plans to develop indigenous vaccines. .
“I’m not going to take another country’s vaccine. Why shouldn’t we have our own?” she said last month.
