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OUR CURRENT QUESTION : Could COVID-19 be the trigger that will catalyze research in Africa?
Madagascar’s Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak: Educational Perspectives from March to June 2020
Abstract
In the 2020s semesters, education has been interrupted a lot by the COVID-19. According to UNESCO2 (2020), “nationwide closings affect more than 60% of the world’s student population. Overall nations have constantly sought solutions to better maintain the continuation of education as nearly 40% of schools have reopened at present”. In March, the pandemic has entered the territory of Madagascar and impacted school closures in the nation. Interview questionnaires with around fifty respondents from the basic educational establishments were involved in this research to learn more about the impacts of the pandemic in the educational sectors. The findings of this study determined the national government has adopted various strategies to maintain its education such as teaching through national television broadcasts, distribution of books to promote self-taught, giving support to non-subsidized teachers, and provide homework to students to maintain their skills. Madagascar has discovered the COVID-organics which is nationally estimated by the government of Madagascar as a curative and preventive remedy. The government has decided to resume its schools merely for students who are under the state examinations, namely CEPE,3 BEPC,4 and Baccalaureate level, naturally with strong sanitary measures. This research recommends that the government need seriously reshaping its current structure of decentralization into full decentralization to have a transparent distribution of resources at the provincial and regional levels. It proposes to the school leaders to strengthen their collaboration with parents, and sensitize and motivate each parent to support and evaluate the study of their children amid the pandemic and the out-school.
Jocelyne Zafitsara and Njaratiana Mario Arthur Velo ; Electronic Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 2: Issue III, Jul – Sep 2020
Artemisia Spp. Derivatives for COVID-19 Treatment: Anecdotal Use, Political Hype, Treatment Potential, Challenges, and Road Map to Randomized Clinical Trials
Paulin M Kapepula 1 , Jimmy K Kabengele 1 , Micheline Kingombe 2 , Françoise Van Bambeke 3 , Paul M Tulkens 3 , Antoine Sadiki Kishabongo 4 , Eric Decloedt 5 , Adam Zumla 6 , Simon Tiberi 6 , Fatima Suleman 7 , Léon Tshilolo 8 , 9 ,10 , Jean-Jacques Muyembe-TamFum 11 ,12 , Alimuddin Zumla 13 ,14 , Jean B Nachega 15,16,17,18,19
Abstract
The world is currently facing a novel COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 that, as of July 12, 2020, has caused a reported 12,322,395 cases and 556,335 deaths. To date, only two treatments, remdesivir and dexamethasone, have demonstrated clinical efficacy through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in seriously ill patients. The search for new or repurposed drugs for treatment of COVID-19 continues. We have witnessed anecdotal use of herbal medicines, including Artemisia spp. extracts, in low-income countries, and exaggerated claims of their efficacies that are not evidence based, with subsequent political controversy. These events highlight the urgent need for further research on herbal compounds to evaluate efficacy through RCTs, and, when efficacious compounds are identified, to establish the active ingredients, develop formulations and dosing, and define pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and safety to enable drug development. Derivatives from the herb Artemisia annua have been used as traditional medicine over centuries for the treatment of fevers, malaria, and respiratory tract infections. We review the bioactive compounds, pharmacological and immunological effects, and traditional uses for Artemisia spp. derivatives, and discuss the challenges and controversies surrounding current efforts and the scientific road map to advance them to prevent or treat COVID-19.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020 Sep;103(3):960-964.doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0820
Congolese Medicinal Plant biodiversity as Source of AntiCOVID-19 Compounds: Economic goods in the light of Comparative Advantages Theory of Ricardo
Modeste Ndaba Modeawi, Ruphin Djolu Djoza, Colette Masengo Ashande, Clarisse Falanga Mawi, Emmanuel Moke Lengbiye, Clément Inkoto Liyongo, Benjamin Gbolo Zoawe, Muhammad Ridwan, Pius T. Mpiana, Mudogo Virima, Koto-te-Nyiwa Ngbolua
Abstract
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 (Corona virus) in China in December 2019, the disease has killed more people in Europa, America and Asia according to official sources. Less impacted than the rest of the world, Africa as well as Oceania has less confirmed cases and less deaths. In countries whose health systems are among the most fragile in the world, with far less resources than those mobilized in Europe, China or the United States, the situation in Africa is potentially catastrophic. Since human and material resources, such as hospitalization and intensive care beds, are largely insufficient, the mortality rate linked to Covid-19 is likely to be 3 to 5 times higher than in the rest of the world. In the face of this evidence, scientific research based on medicinal plants would be seen as no less important part of the solution to the Covid-19 pandemic, based on plant biodiversity. The Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA/Madagascar) on the basis of the Artemisia annua has set up Covid-Organics; The Congolese plant biodiversity offers undeniable advantages for the setting up of an Improved Traditional Medicine following the example of Covid-Organics. This would constitute for the Democratic Republic of the Congo a comparative advantage to be put forward in its multiple international exchanges.
Budapest International research in Exact Sciences ( BirEx) Journal, Volume 2, No3, juky 2020, page: 298-309
Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19: An Overhyped Hope
Abhishek Shankar1, Anusha Dubey2, Deepak Saini2, and Chandra Prakash Prasad3
The entire mankind across the globe is suffering with COVID-19 outbreak and searching for definite vaccine or treatment for it. Every country is trying hard to get a breakthrough for defi nitive therapy in the form of antiviral therapy, plasma therapy and vaccine against this virus, as current management is symptom directed treatment. Many of the countries are also trying complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including traditional, Herbal treatment, alone or in combination with standard management, as an option for prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Although, there is no conclusive evidence to support its usefulness to reduce the viral load and/or symptoms. Countries like China and India, have either started or preparing to conduct trial studies of traditional medicine to assess the efficacy of such therapies in coronavirus disease.
Chin J Integr Med 2020 Aug;26(8):565-567