MALARLIFE •NEWS Doctors For Life press statement 17 July 2001
World-wide about 500 million people contract malaria each
year. Between 2 and 3 million of those people die, many of whom are children
under 5 years old.
Malaria is transmitted from one person to another by mosquitoes of the species
Anopheles. When they take blood from an infected person they collect the malaria
parasites (microbes, called plasmodium). Then, when they take blood from another
person, they inject the plasmodium along with their saliva. The plasmodium finds
its way into the liver, and from there into the red blood cells. The victim
falls sick 7 to 10 days after being bitten.
Because malaria microbes have begun to develop a resistance to the commercial
drugs which have been used to treat malaria for many years, these drugs are
becoming less effective, and increasingly often fail to cure the disease. The
plant Artemisia annua has been used for many years by the Chinese to treat fevers,
and more recently to treat malaria.
Wild species of Artemisia annua grow all over the world. The hybrid we call
Artemisia annua anamed has been developed from plants native to China and Vietnam.
It has the qualities that it grows in the tropics, produces an abundance of
leaves, and these leaves are rich in the particular ingredient that is very
effective in treating malaria, artemisinin. This hybrid grows up to two metres
high, cannot withstand frost and requires careful cultivation.
Four health centres and clinics in the D. R. Congo have provided us with detailed
reports of the treatment of individual patients, any side-effects exhibited
and their clinical progress, as well as the results of laboratory tests. The
four health centres operated completely independently from each other.
In total, 254 patients received treatment with tea made as described above.
236 patients (93%) were healed, and their blood was completely free of parasites.
In 218 patients (86%) the symptoms disappeared totally during the treatment.
According to the literature, commercial Artesunate tablets give a cure rate
of between 72 and 90%, see Karbwang et al (1994). These results indicate that
the use of this tea gives similar or even better results than using commercially
produced tablets, whose high price (Uganda: 10-20 USD/cure) makes them inaccessible
to most patients!
