The World Health Organization says the US has provided no evidence to support US President Donald Trump’s claim that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

“We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus — so from our perspective, this remains speculative,” the UN health agency’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said.

Trump claims to have proof the new coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak started in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Last month, the US president halted funding to the World Health Organisation after he accused the UN boy of initially downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak to “shield China.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on the assertion that the outbreak originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,” Pompeo told ABC News on Sunday.

China has vehemently denied suggestions the lab was the source.

The WHO emergencies director said, “Like any evidence-based organisation, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus.” Ryan stressed that this was “a very important piece of public health information for future control.

“If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, but it is difficult for the WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that regard,” he added.

Scientists have condemned conspiracy theories about the Chinese laboratory, saying the new coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.

Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci echoed the WHO’s statement, saying that, “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.”

“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species,” he said.

Intelligence assessment contradicts Trump, Pompeo’s claim

Intel shared among US allies indicated it is “highly unlikely” that the coronavirus outbreak was spread as a result of an accident in a laboratory but rather originated in a Chinese market.

“It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction,” an official from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing coalition said.

The Five Eyes alliance is made up of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

A source from the Five Eyes nation said that “clearly the market is where the new coronavirus exploded from,” but how the virus got to the market remains unclear.

China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper slammed Pompeo’s Wuhan lab claim, saying that the former CIA director had “stunned the world with groundless accusations.”

“Since Pompeo said his claims are supported by ‘enormous evidence,’ then he should present this so-called evidence to the world, and especially to the American public who he continually tries to fool,” Global Times said.

As the war of words escalates between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, critics say the Trump administration has ramped up efforts to blame China for the global outbreak as it faces growing criticism at home for its own handling of the pandemic.

Nearly 70,000 people died of the coronavirus in the US, and 1,180,634 virus cases were recorded as of early Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Presstv

As the world continues looking for ways of stopping the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 and containing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that we all make this process easier for scientists by respecting the prescribed sanitation and social distancing prescriptions aimed at limiting transmission via nasal and respiratory secretions of infected persons. As researchers better understand aspects of the virus, there is now evidence of the occurrence and shedding of active COVID-19 virus in the stools of infected persons.  The presence of live virus in stools indicates its presence in the human gastrointestinal tract, where there are trillions of other microorganisms (mainly bacteria of different species) comprising the human micro biome.  The bacteria that make up the human micro biome are much larger than the SARS-CoV-2 and could serve as hosts to the virus, thereby helping its replication.  Previous research work reported influenza virus’ (a relative of SARS-CoV-2) infection of the Streptococcus pneumonia (bacteria that causes respiratory tract infections) making respiratory tract infections worse.  It is therefore possible that the human micro biome could serve as a good host of SARS-CoV-2.  Eliminating the coronavirus from the gastrointestinal tract or stopping its replication will therefore provide an effective means of stopping the shedding of the active virus via feces, cutting out that potential route of transmission.

Presently there is no well-studied treatment, and an acceptable vaccine is not likely to be available in the short term.  We have to bear in mind that this is a new virus, one that the human immune system had not been exposed to prior to the last few months of 2019.  On the contrary, our micro biome has been with us from birth and is constantly changing based on the foods we are exposed to.  This therefore means that the dietary habits of a people determine the bacteria that they host, as well as the functioning of their immune system and ability to manage certain infections.  At this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, maybe it is more important than ever before to pay more attention to what goes into our gastrointestinal tract, with the knowledge that our foods should be our most important medication.

Considering the variety and richness of the Cameroonian cuisine, it is likely that the micro biome of Cameroonians is just as rich and varied.  Ascertaining the protective role of this micro biome, thus constitutes a major focus of our research work at the J & A Oben Foundation.  Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the J & A Oben Foundation has worked in collaboration with other researchers (Jude Bigoga, Guy Takuissu, Ismael Teta and Rose Leke) to investigate the potential of a fortified ‘Yellow Soup’ called ‘STAR YELLOW” to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 via feces.  Star Yellow differs from the well-known Yellow Soup widely consumed and sold in restaurants by the addition of ground melon seed (egusi) and garlic, known for their high zinc content and antibacterial activity respectively. The high zinc content inhibits viral replication.  As well as garlic’s antibacterial, antioxidant and anticoagulant activity, it’s high inulin content provides fuel for the growth of ‘good bacteria’ in the micro biome.  As well as the presence of all the functional ingredients in Star Yellow, what makes it stand out is its chemistry, which though basic, could be important in the management of the spread of COVID-19.   The initial steps in the preparation of Star Yellow involve the mixing of palm oil (a lipid) and limestone or sodium bicarbonate (a base) in the presence of water.  This process in simple chemistry terms is referred to as ‘saponification’.  SARS-CoV-2 is spherical and consists of ribonucleic acid (RNA), lipids and proteins (spikes protruding from their surface giving the appearance of a crown).  There are no strong bonds holding these units together, which means that even mild chemicals like Star Yellow will split them apart.  Basically the Star Yellow will dissolve the fat membrane of the virus and the virus falls apart.  If this process occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, the RNA of SARS-CoV-2 is exposed to zinc from the diet that stops its replication, making the virus inactive. 

If ongoing work by our research group turns out to be conclusive, Star Yellow could be useful in ridding the gastrointestinal tract of active viruses just as other products of saponification work on the skin.  This could limit the spread of COVID-19 through feces in areas with poor hygienic conditions. The above reminds me of a conversation I had with the Late Professor Victor Anoma Ngu during which he said, “good science doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated science, but a good researcher should be able to find simple solutions to complex problems”.  In the meantime, Cameroonians should protect themselves by washing their hands regularly, wearing protective masks, practicing social distancing and eating a balanced diet that will strengthen their immune system and provide a healthy micro biome.

*Professor Julius Oben is also Co-founder of the J&A Oben Foundation, Lead Researcher at its Nutrition and Dietetics Research Centre (CANDIREC), Supervisor of its Wellness and Nutrition Centre and Proprietor of its Professional School of Dietetics and Functional Foods (CEFOPDIET)

Cameroonians have been flooding into the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Douala, where Archbishop Samuel Kleda claims he has found an herbal cure for COVID-19.

The popularity of the archbishop’s alleged cure has prompted some authorities to try to make the treatment more widely available, even though medical experts have urged extreme caution about its use.

Paul Nyaga, curate of St. Paul’s Parish of the Douala Archdiocese, said through a messaging application that since information circulated a week ago that Kleda could treat COVID-19, many have been rushing to his parish for help.

He said the parish had been overwhelmed by the number of people coming from Yaounde, Bafoussam and Douala with test results showing that they were COVID-19-positive and saying they did not have access to treatment. He said he told them to go to Catholic hospitals in the archdiocese, where they would be treated when there were additional supplies of the archbishop’s herbal remedy.

Among the hundreds asking for help was hairdresser Clementine Eya, 27, who also spoke via a messaging application from Douala.

She said she had no money to pay for the hospital treatment of her elder sister, who tested COVID-19-positive in Douala and wanted to see the archbishop because she had been told his treatment was efficient and free.

Several dozen treated

Kleda told state media CRTV on April 25 that he had treated several dozen people, including eight medical staff members, for conditions affecting their respiratory systems, just like the coronavirus does.

Kleda, speaking via a messaging application from Douala, said he could confirm that his 30 years of medicinal plant research experience, especially on herbal treatment, had enabled him to find a cure for COVID-19.

He said he was very happy because everyone who had taken the herbal remedy had been cured of COVID-19.  He added that that his goal as a servant of God was to help poor and suffering people, and that was why he gave away the cure, which he named Essential Oils, free of charge.

Last week, the Cameroonian government sent a team of researchers and doctors to determine the validity of Kleda’s claimed cure. Public Health Minister Malachie Manaouda said the government’s support would be determined by the outcome of the investigation. He said if Kleda was proven to be right, the government would make it more widely available for COVID-19 patients.

The Cameroon Medical Council and the Cameroon Academy of Sciences have both called for research to determine the efficiency of Essential Oils.

Advice: Rely on hospitals

Dieudonne Kameni of the Cameroon Medical Council said that for now, COVID-19 patients should count only on treatment at authorized government hospitals.

He said by telephone from Douala that medical practice has rules, regulations and professional  ethics that must be observed before drugs can be used in patients, but that the archbishop’s collection of herbs was still at a preclinical testing stage and could not be scientifically called a cure for COVID-19. He said he was asking patients to go to hospitals, which for now were the only sure places COVID-19 could be treated.

Kleda said he would continue administering the treatment to patients who sought help from him while waiting for scientists to complete their findings. Many patients have, however, complained of the difficulty of obtaining Essential Oils because of high demand.

Cameroon has been hit harder by the coronavirus than any other country in Central Africa. As of Saturday afternoon EDT, the country had recorded 2,077 confirmed cases, with 64 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.

Source: VOA

Gilead Science’s remdesivir, one of the most highly anticipated drugs being tested against the new coronavirus, showed positive results in a large-scale US government trial, the company said Wednesday.

“We understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint and that NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) will provide detailed information at an upcoming briefing,” the company said.

Though it is difficult to precisely quantify the finding in the absence of results, it represents the first time any drug has been shown to improve outcomes against the COVID-19 illness, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives globally and brought the world economy to a grinding halt.

There have been mixed results for the intravenous antiviral in recent weeks. A summary of results posted on the website of the World Health Organization showed it failed in a smaller Chinese trial, but days before that, Stat reported it had shown significant efficacy at a Chicago hospital.

However, this trial, begun in late February and overseen by the US government, is the largest and technically most robust.

According to a data sheet, its estimated enrollment was 800 patients, a portion of whom received the drug while the rest received a placebo.

Neither the patients nor their physicians were aware of which group they belonged to, in order to eliminate unconscious bias.

It is a Phase 3 trial, the final stage before any medication can receive regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Remdesivir, which previously failed in trials against Ebola, belongs to a class of drugs that act on the virus directly — as opposed to controlling the abnormal and often lethal autoimmune response it causes.

It mimics one of the four building blocks of RNA and DNA and gets absorbed into the virus’s genome, which in turn stops the pathogen from replicating.

The antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are also being widely used against COVID-19 on a so-called “compassionate basis” pending results from large trials, with early studies decidedly mixed.

Other therapies that are being studied include collecting antibodies from COVID-19 survivors and injecting them in patients, or harvesting antibodies from genetically-engineered mice that were deliberately infected.

Source: AFP

Russia overtook China in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, when its tally climbed above 87,000, as pressure rose on the government to consider easing lockdown restrictions for businesses to help shore up the rattled economy.

Russia, the world’s largest country by territory, has been on lockdown since President Vladimir Putin announced the closure of most public spaces in late March. These measures are due to expire on April 30 and Putin has not yet said if he plans to extend them.

Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, told state television on Monday that, in her view, restrictions should be in place until May 12.

Earlier Prime Minister Mikhail Mishushin asked his government to submit proposals by Thursday to ease some of the restrictions on businesses. Many firms have warned that they risk going bankrupt if the lockdown continues, and thousands of workers have been laid off.

Mishustin told an online government meeting that as soon as the situation started to improve “we would need to consider a step-by-step cancellation of restrictions on certain companies… operations”.

On Monday, the authorities reported  6,198 new cases of the new coronavirus, bringing the total to 87,147, with 794 deaths.

Moscow plans to open two new hospitals, with 1,500 beds each, in the defence ministry’s Patriot museum and in the Crocus exhibition centre, once a spot for lavish concerts, business daily RBC reported on Monday.

St Petersburg, the country’s second largest city, is also turning Lenexpo, which used to host Russia’s top economic forum, into a temporary hospital with 1,000 beds.

Energy sector in focus

Russia, one of the world’s top oil and gas exporters, is particularly vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus at production sites. Most are located in remote areas accessible only by air, meaning the workers must be in close proximity, increasing their risk of infection.

Citing local officials, news agency Interfax said on Monday that an airport in Sabetta, in the northern Yamal peninsula, had been shut down  for quarantine after cases of the new coronavirus were detected at the Yamal LNG production site controlled by Novatek.

A total of 143 cases were confirmed in Sabetta, the local crisis response centre said separately.

In the northwestern region of Murmansk where Novatek is building a plant to supply its next LNG project, the Arctic LNG 2, more than 800 workers tested positive for coronavirus, the local crisis response centre said on Sunday.

Velesstroy, a sub-contractor for the plant, temporarily suspended work at the site near Murmansk, but said in a statement to Reuters that the project would remain on schedule.

To limit the risk of contagion at more than 1,000 power plants in Russia, including nuclear ones, more than 200,000 employees – or nearly a third – were recently tested for the virus, the energy ministry said.

It did not say how many of those tests returned positive.

Mainland China, where the new coronavirus first emerged, reported a total of 82,830 cases on Monday. China is now fighting an increased number of new cases coming from Russia.

Source: REUTERS

A song urging Cameroonians not to relent in the fight against malaria blasted through speakers Saturday — World Malaria Day — at road junctions and popular neighborhoods, as well as from publicity vans driving through Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

Dr. Daniel Etoundi of Cameroon’s public health ministry said health teams were being taken to every neighborhood to try to discourage patients from buying roadside drugs or resorting to African traditional healers for malaria treatment, because those can lead to severe health complications.

“If the product is toxic, the liver will be spoiled [destroyed]. Same with the kidney,” he said. “Most of the products that we consume are eliminated through the kidney by urine. Now, if the drug is toxic, it will spoil the kidney function.”

The Cameroon Ministry of Public Health reported that since March 5, when the first case of the coronavirus was reported in the central African state, many people with suspected cases of malaria or other diseases have refused to go to hospitals for fear they will catch COVID-19. As of Saturday, more than 1,500 cases had been confirmed in the country,  according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.

But medical doctors say 90 percent of Cameroon’s 25 million people are at risk of malaria, while 41 percent have an episode each year.

Dr. Dorothy Achu, coordinator of Cameroon’s National Malaria Control Program, said people should understand that although there is much government emphasis on the dangers of COVID-19, malaria remains the nation’s major killer, especially of children.

“We are trying to sensitize health workers to protect themselves well but to continue to provide services,” as well as reassure the population “that it is not in all hospitals that we take care of COVID patients. So we just require them to protect themselves when they go to hospitals,” she said.

Education efforts

Innocent Kuisseu, sensitization team member for the prevention of malaria, said members also were educating Cameroonians about how to protect themselves from malaria by systematically using insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets and visiting hospitals when they suspect they might have malaria. He said people should not think that anyone who has malaria also has COVID-19.

“Efforts are being put in to make sure that the population is more and more aware of what should be the right treatment, to make sure that in suspicion of malaria there should be a rapid diagnostic test, to make sure that they sleep under insecticide-treated nets,” he said.

The International group Severe Malaria Observatory reports that malaria causes 22% of deaths occurring in health care facilities in Cameroon, and that 10% of deaths in children under 5 years old are linked to malaria.

Health officials in Cameroon blame the surge of malaria and COVID-19 cases on the fact that many people do not respect basic hygiene standards and don’t visit health facilities when they have early signs of either disease. They also say there are too many people who refuse to use treated mosquito bed nets.

Source: VOA

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo says the number of COVID-19 cases in the WHO African Region has increased to over 30,000.

The UN’s health agency gave the update on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO on Sunday.

“Over 30,000 COVID-19 cases reported on the African continent with over 9,000 associated recoveries and 1,300 deaths recorded,’’ it said.

The WHO African Region COVID-19 dashboard showed that in sub-Saharan Africa, the South Africa suffered the most severe outbreak, while Cameroon and Ghana had more than 2, 500 confirmed cases.

The figures on the dashboard showed that South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon had continued to top the list of countries with the highest reported cases.

It showed that South Africa had 4, 361 cases and 86 deaths followed by Algeria with 3, 256 cases and 419 deaths, while Cameroon had 1,518 confirmed cases with 53 deaths.

According to the dashboard, South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Mauritania are countries with the lowest confirmed cases in the region.

It showed that South Sudan had the lowest confirmed cases of five reported with zero death.

Mauritania, the dashboard showed, was second country with the lowest confirmed cases with seven reported cases and one death.

Source: The News