PEOPLE claiming to have found the cure for COVID-19 have been cautioned against misleading Zambians and affecting citizens’ adherence to preventive measures. Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) president Samson Chisele said in an interview that currently, researchers worldwide are still working hard to find a vaccine. Recently, a Zambian herbal researcher asked Government to consider testing a mixture of herbs he has come up with, claiming it could be a cure for COVID-19. Howard Maila, 25, said the herbal mixture has proved effective because his clients have used it to cure other illnesses, including HIV. But Dr Chisele dismissed Mr Maila’s claims.

“COVID-19 is a viral infection and the cure for the infection does not yet exist. The public should be wary of being misled. “There is an established way of conducting research which also involves animal trials before any medicine can be tried on human beings,” he said. Dr Chisele said the safety profile and efficacy of the claim needs to be determined before such medicines can be made public. He said such claims by traditional leaders and herbalists are uncalled for, especially now that most countries are grappling to contain the disease, which has affected over 2.7 million people globally and killed over 192,000.

Dr Chisele urged Zambians to focus on adhering to the measures prescribed by health experts to prevent the disease from spreading further. These measures include regularly washing hands with soap, cleaning hands using an alcohol-based hand sanitiser and wearing face masks. Dr Chisele also urged members of the public to use washable masks as they are affordable and easy to dispose of. He said surgical masks are mostly recommended for surgeons who are trained on how they should be used. Zambia has so far recorded 84 confirmed cases of coronavirus with