The president of Tanzania says he will send a plane to Madagascar to import a herbal tonic which has been touted as a cure for coronavirus by the country’s president.
Congo-Brazzaville’s president has also promised to import the drink.
It is produced from the artemisia plant – the source of an ingredient used in a malaria treatment.
The World Health Organization has said there is no proof of any cure and has advised people against self-medicating.
The drink was launched as Covid-Organics and was being marketed after being tested on fewer than 20 people over a period of three weeks, the president’s chief of staff Lova Hasinirina Ranoromaro told the BBC.
In response to the launch of Covid-Organics, the WHO said in a statement sent to the BBC that the global organisation did not recommend “self-medication with any medicines… as a prevention or cure for Covid-19”.
It reiterated earlier comments by WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that there were “no short-cuts” to finding effective mediation to fight coronarvirus.
International trials were under way to find an effective treatment, the WHO added.
