The University of Zambia (UNZA), one of Zambia’s highest learning institutions says it is on course to finding a local treatment solution for the corona virus and will have results that will be presented to both the Ministry of Health and the public by April 2020.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, UNZA School of Natural Sciences Lecturer and Researcher Dr. James Nyirenda who is also the task force leader said the institution has received the cells, which will be tested to see if they are able to destroy the virus.
Dr. Nyirenda said once the results are ready, they will be presented to the funders adding that it will be up to the policy makers to make the final decision depending on the findings of the tests that will be done.
He expressed happiness that the cells used for testing had arrived as there were some challenges in acquiring them due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and most flights could not reach the country.
He added that as a public university, it does subscribe to public procurement procedures and one of the procedures took long thereby delaying the arrival of the cells noting that all that is left to do is complete the paperwork before testing can begin.
“We are trying to sort out one or two things in terms of protocols for experimentation, the reagents that came need to be tested now, to see if the cells are capable of destroying the virus, they are supposed to be pure compounds and since Zambia doesn’t make pure compounds, we had to import them, he said.”
“Tests need to be done in order to see what works and what doesn’t, what works, we concretize and proceed with the same research to see if there can be mass production”, he said.
He noted that the research has two components, which are natural products and conventional drugs adding that conventional drugs are already in existence so it is just a matter of advising the public on which drugs do work and drugs that are thought to be working that do not.
“Natural products do not use scientific proof so that is the science we are trying to prove or provide to those traditional plants, because we use indigenous knowledge system, these are knowledge systems where somebody just says this tree works, but there is no proof, so we are trying to experiment and come up with facts, he said.”
He said he and his team has continued to perform more tests to see whether these drugs work and if not, he will be able to give scientific and expert advice to the public. “With science, we work with facts, we work with reality and test something, we are testing cells so we have to prove emperically that certain medicines that have been talked of really work or not as well as certain natural products, he said.”
Concerns on the timeline for certifying local treatment of Covid have continued to be postponed due to lack of local capacity and compounds to conduct independent tests.
Concerns have also arisen as to whether the country will be able to independently test the vaccines that have been allocated to Zambia following concerns around the possibility of abuse of vaccines. Advances in Science and technology remain a major challenge for Zambia and most African states which have rendered efforts to catch up on development difficult.
