Herbal medicine, drinks can’t cure COVID-19: Indonesia Health Ministry
Dyaning Pangestika The Jakarta Post Thu, August 6, 2020
Photo: Indonesia.go.id
JAKARTA – The Health Ministry has reaffirmed that herbal medicine and jamu (traditional herbal drink) cannot be used to cure COVID-19 symptoms.
Akhmad Saikhu, the head of the ministry’s herbal and traditional medicine research and development division, said herbal medicine or drinks only worked to relieve comorbidity symptoms in a patient, rather than curing the coronavirus disease.
A comorbidity is a medical condition that co-occurs with another, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
“Jamu can only be used to relieve symptoms of comorbid diseases,” said Akhmad in a statement on Wednesday.
He added several misconceptions had been passed among the public that jamu could be used to cure the coronavirus disease. However, COVID-19 could only be cured with an antiviral drug, Akhmad went on to say.
COVID-19 antiviral drugs and vaccines are still being tested. State-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma is working with Padjadjaran University in West Java to launch Phase III clinical trials in humans of a vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech of China in the near future.
A study from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers found that around 1.7 billion people in the world are at risk of becoming severely infected with COVID-19 due to a comorbidity or underlying health problems, such as obesity and heart disease.
Source: THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA Thu, August 6, 2020
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