Madagascar's president touts herbal drink against COVID-19
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
January 27, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
Madagascar's president touts herbal drink against COVID-19

Coronavirus chronicle

AP/UNB
28 April, 2020, 05:05 pm
Last modified: 28 April, 2020, 05:11 pm

Related News

  • Potential China wave is 'wild card' for ending Covid emergency: WHO advisors
  • WHO chief hopes Covid will no longer be emergency next year
  • The Prof Writes: Covid-19 - The one that got away from us
  • Long Covid remains a mystery, though theories are emerging
  • Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen tests Covid positive

Madagascar's president touts herbal drink against COVID-19

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina promoted the drink, Covid Organics, on national television saying it will 'change the course of history.'

AP/UNB
28 April, 2020, 05:05 pm
Last modified: 28 April, 2020, 05:11 pm
A man gets his bottle filled with a herbal extract believed to protect from COVID-19, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Photo: AP/UNB
A man gets his bottle filled with a herbal extract believed to protect from COVID-19, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Photo: AP/UNB

As their high school reopened after being closed for a month due to the coronavirus, students in Madagascar's capital city were given face masks and a small bottle of an herbal extract they were told to drink to protect them from COVID-19.

Many grimacing at its bitter taste, the students swallowed the drink and entered school to resume classes, where they were now seated one to a desk instead of two, for safer distance.

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina promoted the drink, Covid Organics, on national television saying it will "change the course of history."

There are no approved drugs for COVID-19 and numerous treatments and vaccines are currently being tested around the world.

Madagascar, an Indian Ocean island nation of 26 million people, currently has 128 recorded cases of Covid-19 and no deaths.

The herbal drink has not been scientifically tested and there's no proof it works against COVID-19. But the president is enthusiastically promoting it.

"What we want to do today is to popularize this drink to protect our population," said Rajoelina on television and then drank a bottle of the concoction.

The drink is being distributed for free in some schools that are reopening and in poor neighborhoods. Elsewhere it is being sold for about 30 cents for an 11-ounce bottle.

The drink was developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research, a private organization that for more than 30 years has researched the uses of Madagascar's traditional medicines. The label on the bottle does not list the ingredients but the president said it is made from artemisia, a bitterroot that is used in some malaria drugs.

Medical experts are critical of the drink, pointing out that no scientific tests have been done on it.

"The scientific evidence that this is effective has not been proved. It's likely that it could actually harm the health of the population, particularly that of children," said the president of Madagascar's Academy of Medicine, Marcel Razanamparany, in a statement.

With no approved drugs for COVID-19, some people around the world are resorting to unproven therapies, sometimes with the backing of government leaders. Rigorous testing of herbal and other traditional remedies is needed, say experts.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has warned against alternative medicine — including certain herbal therapies and teas — for treating or preventing COVID-19, saying there was no evidence they work and some may be unsafe.

"It's the responsibility of those who make a herbal drink to show the scientific evidence that their claims are valid," said Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who runs Quackwatch, a website about unproven medical therapies.

"This is a worldwide problem, with untested products being promoted as cures," he said. "The money spent producing this might be better spent in Madagascar vaccinating children against measles and other childhood diseases."

Madagascar is currently battling an  outbreak of measles, which last year killed nearly 1,000 children.

In Madagascar, the herbal drink was developed in recent weeks and will also be sold in larger 1-liter bottles for the equivalent of 80 cents and as tea bags for $2.60 for a box of 14.

In front of the Ampefiloha high school, in the center of the capital Antananarivo, hundreds of students in their final year, took the drink in order to return to class.

"I was a little afraid of this remedy at the beginning but I saw a program on television where the president of the republic drank it so I am no longer worried," said Hugo Ramiakatrarivo. "They say it boosts immunity, but I don't know if it will work. My parents told me not to take this medicine. They even told me not to go to school today because the epidemic is not over and especially not to drink this medicine. They are really scared. But I decided to come to study because we have our exam at the end of the year."

Classes were suspended on March 23 by the Malagasy authorities after the announcement of the first cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The school's principal, Mamisoa Randrianjafy, reassured skeptical students.

"It is an herbal tea as we are used to taking," he explained, saying it is like many other herbal remedies popular in Madagascar. He said that if students refuse the drink, they would not be permitted to attend classes.

The secretary general of the Ministry of National Education, Herimanana Razafimahefa said the drink will be given to all students in the capital and two other cities where COVID-19 has been confirmed.

At the Ampefiloha high school, Déborah Andrianary, 19, took a few sips of the drink.

"It's bitter and a little sweet at the same time, so it made me want to throw up," she said. "I'm not afraid to drink it because I'm used to herbal teas, but the taste is really weird. I don't know if I'm going to finish this bottle."

Top News

madagascar / Madagascar President / Tout / Herbal Drink / Coronavirus / Coronavirus medicine

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt
    Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt
  • Sugar turning bitter!
    Sugar turning bitter!
  • Island hopping in Bangladesh?
    Island hopping in Bangladesh?

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Collected
    India launches world’s 1st intranasal Covid vaccine
  • A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants is pictured at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    US CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent Covid shot
  •  A medical worker checks the IV drip treatment of a patient lying on a bed in the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Staff
    China says Covid deaths down by nearly 80 percent
  • Sean Bagley, 14, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC
  • People embrace at the international arrivals gate at Beijing Capital International Airport after China lifted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine requirement for inbound travellers in Beijing, China January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
    China says peak Covid infections exceeded 7 million daily, deaths more than 4,000 daily
  • A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
    US proposes once-a-year Covid shots for most Americans

Related News

  • Potential China wave is 'wild card' for ending Covid emergency: WHO advisors
  • WHO chief hopes Covid will no longer be emergency next year
  • The Prof Writes: Covid-19 - The one that got away from us
  • Long Covid remains a mystery, though theories are emerging
  • Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen tests Covid positive

Features

December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

37m | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

2h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

HC verdict moves the needle on recognising single motherhood

32m | Panorama
According to the CAB president Ghulam Rahman, one of the most common complaints of consumers is being deceived by sellers when it comes to the weight of goods. Photo: TBS

Has the Directorate improved consumer rights in Bangladesh?

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

14h | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

15h | TBS Stories
PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

PCB recalls cricketers from BPL ahead of PSL

17h | TBS SPORTS
Why Misha Sawdagar became villain instead of a Hero?

Why Misha Sawdagar became villain instead of a Hero?

16h | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]