Ebola: NAFDAC to arrest LUTH consultant on Ewedu claims

Prof Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu, who laid claims that Ewedu is capable of curing the Ebola Virus Disease

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and ‎Control, NAFDAC has made a pronouncement to arrest the Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lagos State Teaching hospital, LUTH, Prof Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu, who laid claims that ‘Genus Corchorus’ popularly known Ewedu is capable of curing the Ebola Virus Disease.

The Director General of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii, made this known at a press briefing on the activities of the agency, which was held on Tuesday at the agency’s Oshodi branch in Lagos.

She made this claim at the 2014 African Traditional Medicine organised by NAFDAC at ikeja, Lagos, in regards for the urgent need of cooperation between Traditional Medicine Practitioners and Conventional Medicine Practitioners in order to enhance better and reliable healthcare delivery system.

According to Oshitelu, Ewedu cures Ebola by improving an infected person’s immune system, likewise providing prevention against the deadly virus for uninfected persons.

“The nutrients in Ewedu is so much that it could kill Ebola by preventing the virus from replicating and destroying more organs in the body. This could immediately stop the symptoms such as high fever, stooling and vomiting.. Ultimately,leading to cure” Oshitelu said.

According to the DG, this claim is even more dangerous because the pronouncement was made by a medical and pharmaceutical professor in a precarious time. “Yes, we are going to arrest the Prof Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu because she did not heed to our advise and also because she made this statement in an event organised by NAFDAC, that is the “2014 African Traditional medicine Day,” he said.

Orhii said that when a scientist discovers a remedy for a disease, the right thing to do is to publish the results in a medium other scientists respect, and not rush to the press.

“One of the consequences of this unsupported and possibly fraudulent claim is that people may be misled into false sense of invincibility on the account of eating Ewedu or Bitter Kola and drop their guard.”

He added that the claim was a national embarrassment and the Agency will not take such uncorroborated claims by supposedly learned people lightly.

He urged the media to continue to support the national efforts to contain the spread of Ebola Virus Disease by publishing information that is the product of evidence-based medical research and which has been verified by the Agency.