Ebola: Nigerian Scholar suggests Ewedu Cure

Medic-ALL (05:09:2014):

Corchorus

A Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, Nigeria, Professor Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu, has laid claims that ‘Genus Corchorus’ popularly known as Ewedu in Nigeria is capable of curing the  deadly Ebola Virus Disease.

She made  this statement at the 2014 African Traditional Medicine organised by NAFDAC (National Agency  for Food and Drug Administration and Control) yesterday at Ikeja, Lagos state. The programme which was arranged for Traditional Medicine Practitioners and Conventional Medicine Practitioners was in response to the  urgent need for cooperation between the two health bodies in order to enhance better and reliable healthcare delivery system.

According to Oshitelu, Ewedu cures Ebola by improving an infected person’s immune system, likewise providing prevention against the deadly virus .for uninfected persons.

“The qualities inside Ewedu is so much that it will kill Ebola by preventing the virus from replicating and destroying more organs in the body. This would immediately stop the symptoms such as high fever, stooling and vomiting. Ultimately, leading to the cure,” Oshitelu said.

She further advised people to consume Ewedu on a regular basis but with strict adherence to its preparation and usage.

The way it will be prepared will be different from the normal way they cook it. It should be washed and rinsed with liquid vinegar, afterwards blend and cook with drinkable water. No salt, potash or seasoning should be added, take 25cl of the concoction a week and it would boost a person’s immunity so that they become impregnable to the virus.” Oshitelu said.

However, In a statement made by the Director General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii who was represented by the Director of Laboratory Service, Stella Denloye, NAFDAC said it has banned illegal advertisement of herbal products and bogus claims of cure for diseases.

“Unpatriotic Nigerians who continue to engage in illegal advert of their products and those making false claims not evaluated by NAFDAC should desist from acts misleading the unsuspecting public. I want to warn and inform them that NAFDAC would deal decisively with anyone found to contravene,” Orhii said.

He noted that there was the need to institutionalise traditional medicine in the health systems worldwide including Nigeria.

He said the stigmatising of the traditional health care by modern/conventional medicine needed to stop. So much that in some countries, it is even illegal to practice it.

“Regulation is the key to ensuring that only good quality, safe and effective traditional/herbal medicines are available to consumers especially if traditional medicine and complementary medicine is to be integrated into the nation’s healthcare system,” Orhii said.

Ebola: A Cure in Sight?

Medic-ALL (Thursday 07:08:2014):

With Ebola cases on the rise in Africa, health experts continue to work tirelessly to find a possible vaccine or in fact a cure to the deadly virus.

                     Ebola virus under the microscope

What We Know

We know that the Ebola virus is a threadlike filovirus that has five different known types. Ebola is able to make copies of itself in the body using a genetic material called the RNA. Inside the body, it causes hemorrhagic symptoms; spreads through bodily fluids such as blood, waste and semen and attacks white blood cells, stalwarts of the immune system, and the platelets that allow blood to clot causes direct and indirect tissue damage—direct because it attacks cells in the liver and indirect through the body’s inflammatory immune response.

At the moment

The FDA is yet to approve any licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus. So far hospital treatment is based on giving patients intravenous fluids to stop dehydration and antibiotics to fight infections. Strict medical infection control and rapid burial are regarded as the best means of prevention.

How far or How Close ???

Several experimental treatments for Ebola are being developed, which have shown promising results in monkeys when given up to five days after infection. 

An experimental treatment, called Zmapp, has being used for the two U.S aid workers  with "apparently encouraging" signs in one of them, according to reports. The treatment is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies against the Ebola virus.

Another experimental drug, developed by the Tekmira Pharmaceuticals in Canada, has been tested on monkeys and in a handful of healthy human volunteers. The drug, TKM-Ebola, is designed to target the strands of the genetic material of the virus (RNA) and similarly a US-based pharmeaceutical company, Sarepta Therapeutics, has developed a similar RNA treatment, this however  has been tested in healthy human volunteers in early safety trials, but has never been tried in a human patient.

 Also....

There have being reports regarding the use of serum (the part of the blood that contains antibodies) - which has been used in past Ebola outbreaks. Survivors have high levels of antibodies against the virus in their blood. In one outbreak in 1995 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven out of eight patients survived after being treated with serum from survivors, according to a NIHR (National Institute of Health and Defence Threat Reduction Agency) Professor. Reports suggest that the US aid workers who developed Ebola may have been given serum before being flown home from Africa.

As the use of experimental treatments continue to raise ethical dilemmas, the World Health Organization (WHO) is convening a panel of medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatments, all in a bid to bring an end to this menace of a virus.

Medic-ALL.Inc
Ref: BBC, NIHR