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LUSAKA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A consortium of civil society organizations in the health sector on Thursday urged authorities in Zambia to start importing Artemisinin, a Chinese malaria drug that has proved to be effective directly from China instead of using it as combination therapy.
Currently, Zambia is using the Chinese drug as a combination drug- Coartem- manufactured by Swiss firm Norvatis International AG.
Humphrey Monde, National Coordinator of the Zambia Civil Society Health Partnership, said instead of using the drug as a combination therapy, Zambia has an opportunity to get the drug directly from China.
He said the fact that the drug has proved to be effective and done wonders in reducing malaria cases in China is evidence enough that the drug should be adopted as the main drug for treatment of malaria instead of using it in a combination therapy.
"That is good news and since the drug has proved to be effective, we urge the authorities to conduct clinical trials so that it can be used directly in Zambia instead of using it as a combination therapy. As a combination, it is mixed with other substances that can reduce its efficacy but if we can get it directly, it will be more useful," he said.
The country's Minister of Health Joseph Kasonde said on Wednesday that the government is open to discussions on getting the drug directly from China.
Artemisinin, discovered by Dr Tu Youyou, the first Chinese scientist to win a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for 2015, is now part of standard anti-malarial regimes which contributed to reduction in death rates due to malaria.
Dr. Tu, the chief professor at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine was inspired by Chinese traditional medicine in discovering Artemisinin by screening many herbal remedies in malaria-infected animals.
The discovery of the drug came at a time when the malaria parasite became resistant to traditional drugs like quinine and chloroquine. The drug has since been included in the World Health Organization (WHO) list of essential medicines.
In combination with other anti-malaria therapies, Artemisinin saves an estimated 100,000 lives every year in Africa.
Malaria is a major health problem in Zambia despite recent successes in scaling up interventions. It affects more than 4 million people annually, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the outpatient visits and resulting in almost 8,000 deaths each year, according to data from the UNICEF.
