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- A South African professor will exhibit Phela, a traditional medicine mixture repurposed for Covid-19, at the World Health Organisation Traditional Medicine Global Summit.
- Phela is prepared from four African medicinal plants and was developed through the University of Free State.
- World Health Organisation director, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said traditional medicine could play an important role in achieving the goal of universal health coverage.
A traditional South African medicine mixture, used for HIV and repurposed for Covid-19, will get a moment in the spotlight at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Traditional Medicine Global Summit.
The two-day summit, which started on Thursday, explores the role of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine in addressing pressing health challenges and driving progress in global health and sustainable development.
African traditional medicine expert and director of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS), Professor Motlalepula Matsabisa, who also co-chairs the WHO Global Traditional Medicines Centre, said the South African team would showcase the science behind their products.
Phela, a mixture prepared from four African medicinal plants, was developed through the UFS.
The team will exhibit the mixture at the summit.
Matsabisa's team tested the pre-clinical safety and efficacy of Phela and found that it had potent effects against SARs-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
READ | SA scientists testing traditional medicine to fight Covid-19 – with promising early results
He said the team would also exhibit indigenous health tea products.
"The African Medicines Innovation and Technology Development Platform (AMITD) and pharmacology [department] scientifically endorsed the teas. We will show the summit their medical benefits," he said.
Meanwhile, WHO director Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said traditional medicine could play an important and catalytic role in achieving the goal of universal health coverage and meeting global health-related targets that were off track even before the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said:
The summit will explore the research and evaluation of traditional medicine, including methodologies that can be used to develop a global research agenda and priorities in traditional medicine as well as challenges and opportunities based on 25 years of research in traditional medicine.
