Adulterated herbal medicines hampering malaria fight

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong has called on the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to critically check the potency and composition of anti-malaria herbal medicine preparation in the country.

He explained a study found out that some of the herbal preparations contain chloroquine which had been withdrawn due to its resistance.

“We want herbal preparation and not adulterated herbal preparation,” he said.

Prof. Boampong was speaking at an inaugural lecture at the University of Cape Coast on the topic: “Malaria treatment failures: what can we do?”

He stated that: “Intentional addition of chloroquine to these herbal preparations to enhance their effectiveness has serious public health concerns as it may induce cross-resistance to amodiaquine, one of the partner drugs in the recommended ACT for use in Ghana.”

He noted that efforts were being made by a research team from UCC to understand the biology and behaviour of the malaria parasites, saying, “Other field studies have also shown a high prevalence of chloroquine-resistant mutants in the population even after the use of chloroquine had been banned”.

Prof. Boampong indicated that, through research, they had been able to come up with some solutions to the problem associated with the malaria parasite.

He explained that prompt diagnosis can help detect malaria on time and also enhance its early treatment while stating that, the best method to prevent and control the malaria vector is vaccination.

He indicated that the reason Ghana was finding it difficult to get vaccines for malaria was due to the malaria parasite having a huge number of proteins which continues to change.