The question is worth repeating. Is anybody looking for a cure for covid-19? At the moment there is a rush to discover a vaccine or vaccines. Several countries, including Nigeria, are said to be cooperating with the World Heath Organisation to find a vaccine. Russia claims to already have a vaccine before its eternal rival, the United States of America. It is understood that a Chinese vaccine is being tested in Abu Dhabi. The United Kingdom says it is close to having a vaccine. The United States of America is spending billions of dollars funding researchers to find a vaccine against the virus and is hoping at the earliest to have one before its November elections or latest by early next year. And there seems to be great hope that a vaccine or several vaccines will be available by early 2021. This is very good news!
You cannot blame anybody for concentrating on vaccines. It is logical. Of the world population of over 7.7 billion, if we take the population of Belgium of 11,420,000 with 9916 deaths as at 15th August as the worst case scenario, it means there would by now be over 7,000,000 deaths world wide. This would be less than .1% of the world population. But so far the total number of deaths recorded is just over one tenth of that excluding China whose data is shrouded in secrecy. It makes sense to rush to protect the vast majority of humanity before the unfortunate minority with compromised immunity hence the rush for vaccines. Vaccination is preventive. So when a vaccine or vaccines are available those who are not already victims will be vaccinated against covid-19. Like yellow fever the vaccination may have to be done again after some time. But there is no cure for yellow fever. Doctors just manage the symptoms! Hopefully covid-19 will not be like yellow fever.
The Government of Madagascar months ago announced to the world that they have a cure for covid-19 and even sent quantities free to Nigeria, South Africa and other countries. For some time we heard nothing. Then Nigeria came out to say that it is not a cure. Nothing definite has been heard from South Africa or the World Health Organisation. Our own Professor Maurice Iwu months ago claimed he had a cure. But he has gone quiet. Then the Catholic Monastery in Ewu announced to the world that they have a cure, Paxherbal cugzin capsules. The capsules were assessed by Nigeria’s NAFDAC and declared to be only an immune booster! But covid-19 seems to be all about the human immune system. If your immune system is strong you are likely to survive if you get infected. So why not treat those with serious covid-19 disease with Paxherbal cugzin capsules and see what happens?
The woman Esther Immanuel who is a doctor cum priest in the USA whose claims are generally weird has a point in insisting that there is a cure for covid-19. There have been as at 11th August, 2020, about 20,000,000 victims world wide out of which 735,000 or 3.675% have died. That means 96.325% were cured. But what is the cure? In Nigeria victims are put in isolation centres to avoid their spreading it and hoping that within the 14 days they will get well. But what are they treated with? The information on social media is vitamin C 1000, vitamin E, sitting in the sun for 15 to 20 minutes, egg meal once daily, sleep 7 to 8 hours, drink 1 to 5 litres of water. These are supposed to strengthen the immune system. Within the 14 days those whose immune systems respond adequately are healed and go home. The more serious cases end up in hospitals. They are the people beyond Esther Immanuel’s cure.
So where is the cure for the serious cases, people with severely compromised immunity, people with asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and other underlying illnesses? There is good news for them. The United Kingdom’s Recovery trial, the WHO Solidarity trial and several pharmaceutical companies are working hard on mainly existing drugs to find out which can cure the extreme cases of the virus induced illness. They are looking for drugs and steroids that can calm inflammation and boost the immune system. Some have shown encouraging results and those of us who are aged and those suffering from illnesses that easily fall prey to covid-19 can pray and hope that a cure for this dreaded illness will soon be found.