On April 20, Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, the launch of a promised cure for COVID-19 to his nearly 100,000 Twitter followers.
“Covid-Organics, improved traditional remedy based on artemisia & endemic plants, curative & preventive against #Covid19, is launched!” he wrote.
The drink, developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), and derived from artemisia annua – an antimalaria ingredient – and other medicinal herbs, sounded like a miracle solution: It purportedly could cure prevent coronavirus.
But Rajoelina’s claims about the efficacy of the drink remain unproved, and COVID-Organics has fallen short when it comes to preventing the coronavirus from taking hold in Madagascar. The country has racked up 14,000 cases and 173 deaths after a surge during July.
Artemisia annua, a herb native to Asia, has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for centuries. Chinese scientists explored its antimalarial properties under Project 523, a top secret state mission, as one of the scientists, Zhou Yiqing, (WHO) in an interview. The plant was also imported to Madagascar during that time.
WHO now recommends antimalarial treatments using artemisia. With the emergence of coronavirus, scientists around the globe, including in countries like Germany have the herb as a potential COVID-19 treatment as well. But Rajoelina has jumped the gun.
Rajoelina said during the official launch that “tests have been carried out – two people have now been cured by this treatment,” and that “this herbal tea gives results in seven days,” .
However, no data assessing its safety and effectiveness has been published in peer-reviewed studies. Experts have also warned of risks from using untested medicines like COVID-Organics, particularly because the drink contains other compounds that can have side effects.
On May 4, WHO that while it “supports scientifically proven traditional medicine,” plants being considered for COVID-19 treatment, like artemisia annua, “should be tested for efficacy and adverse side effects.”
A few weeks later, Rajoelina that after an exchange with WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization was going to “sign a confidentiality clause on the wording of the #CovidOrganics and support the clinical observation process that will span the African continent.”
The following day, Ghebreyesus . However, Michel Yao, manager for emergency operations at WHO Africa, that the collaboration between the two wasn’t a validation of the drug: “The Covid-Organics has yet to prove itself, and the WHO wants to help Madagascar to prove that they exist, if they exist.”
Brazil’s Nexo newspaper that the drink’s launch came shortly after , Madagascar’s public television station, broadcast the story of an anonymous Brazilian woman, “presented as a visionary prophet,” who predicted in November 2019 that the cure for a disease that would cause a global health crisis would be found in the African island.
Nexo reported that opponents of Madagascar’s president accused him of being behind the video and taking advantage the population’s naivete to sell fake cures for the disease. But Rajoelina's chief of staff, Lova Hasinirina, defended her boss, saying "it is necessary to recognize that there are unexplained mysteries in the world," Nexo reported.
The drink has already been widely distributed Madagascar – including to school children. that 250 liters of COVID-Organics were distributed daily, and that some people lined up every day to get it.
According to multiple news sites, , the drink also has been either ordered by or delivered to other countries, including Tanzania, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and, more recently, the United Arab Emirates. Rajoelina that the UAE was “sending sanitation equipment and has asked to receive #CovidOrganics that #Madagascar donates.”
But the number of COVID-19 cases in Madagascar started rising after COVID-Organics' launch, hitting 14,009 as of Aug. 18, with 173 deaths. After peaking in mid-July at more than 600 in a day, reported cases have fallen, . But the virus persists.
Hospitals in Madagascar are overwhelmed and those on the frontline don’t have enough protective gear to treat COVID-19 patients. "The state is doing better now regarding protective equipment, but it's not enough to stem the epidemic. Health workers keep using the same protective gear meant for single use only, especially gowns and suits, and there aren't enough drugs,” Jerisoa Ralibera, president of the SISFM paramedics' union, .