The figures for malaria are always frightening. By my last check, the Ministry of Health was estimating the total economic cost of malaria in Ghana at $772.4 million. If, like me, such abstract figures are confusing to you, your case can be helped by what economists will term the real cost.
One researcher found that the total economic cost of malaria treatment in Ghana is equivalent to:
• Over twice the annual budget of the Ministry of Health
• The cost of 30,000 4X4 pickup vehicles
• The cost of 215,680 tonnes of cocoa
• The cost of around 5,546,000 barrels of oil
• Approximately 10 per cent of Ghana’s GDP growth.
All of the above can be halved if we could reduce our dependence on imported solutions, mostly WHO-recommended imported drugs. We have tried all the anti-malarials – quinine, chloroquine and now artemisinin-based combination therapies. But are we trying the locals?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has increased its malaria programme budget to more than $200 million per year to pursue, among other objectives, a wide range of research on new strategies to prevent and treat the disease.
Among beneficiary institutions of the grants are the following:
• $42 million to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to identify ways to optimize delivery of artemisinin combination therapy
• $37 million to the Medicines for Malaria Venture to accelerate the development of effective, affordable malaria drugs
• $30 million to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to evaluate new and existing drugs and vector control interventions to protect pregnant women and their babies from malaria
• $15 million to PATH for additional support to the Malaria Control and Evaluation Programme in Africa (MACEPA)
• $9 million to the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute for research on a malaria vaccine for pregnant women
• $3 million to World Health Organisation to study ways to prevent resistance to artemisinin combination therapy
Where are Africa-based research institutions in all of this? None. Of course, you can’t blame the Gates. When Bill Gates came to Ghana in 2013, was he taken to Mampong Centre for Research into Plant Medicine? Did anyone even whisper Mampong into his ears?
And yet this Ghanaian centre is touted as one of the best in Africa. If for nothing, it has been responsible for initiating research into the efficacy of “NIBIMA” which has been hailed as “a wonder plant for malaria treatment”. If you doubt me, go to GTV and ask for Clare Banoeng Yakubu’s news-documentary on this plant whose botanical name is cryptolepis sanguinolenta.
In a thesis to ascertain the quality, safety and effectiveness of Nibima (2005), Dr De-Gaulle Moses Dogbatsey found that out of the 32 patients treated for malaria, using Nibima, 64.9 per cent had total cure; 29.7 per cent had partial cure and 5.4 per cent showed no response. Curious, Dr Dogbatsey set out to find out the secret of the plant’s efficacy.
Archimedes (287 BC – c.?212 BC), in his excitement, shouted “Eureka”. I don’t know what this Greek word translates in Dr Dogbatsey’s mother-tongue, but, man, did he jump! His analyses concluded that “the secondary metabolites of alkaloids and tannins present in Nibima could account for the therapeutic effects seen”.
A pre-clinical study in respect of Nibima toxicity was also done. The plant was tested on various animal models to see its safety implications. Efficacy studies were also carried out. Guess what: all the tests proved right.
That is why official attitude toward the drug brings tears into the eyes of passionate advocates like Dr. Archibald Ayitey Sittie, one time Deputy Director of the centre. He is on record as wondering why “Nibima has not been made an officially endorsed alternative treatment for malaria by the Ministry of Health”. Beyond local use, the advocates swear that Ghana could become an exporter of the herbal medicine not only to other Africa countries but to the world.
Unfortunately, the IMF has not told us to.
Two weeks ago, I saw Nibima in a homeopathic clinic. That sent me on a survey. Only two out of 30 drug stores stocked it. Even here, the patronage has not been encouraging. Indeed, for this reason, five shops have stopped stocking it. Was I surprised?
If only we could spend on nibima, one-hundredth the advertising budget for the many bitters and aphrodisiacs which are killing our young people by the dozens in this country!
Of course, this article is not a recommendation that Ghana should continue to be the country where plant medicines are not tested beyond what only their “discoverers” have tasted and found. I think we should be more rigorous and insist on thorough tests (including tests on animals, as Mampong did with Nibima) as against the prevailing situation where Ghanaian herbal drugs are on radio and TV a day after our herbalists have “discovered” them.
BY THE WAY… Did you hear the latest? A report by WHO says that: “Mosquitoes carrying malaria have circumvented bed nets by feeding (biting) earlier in the evening, catching people before they retire for the night”!