According to a report by the Sun of Mexico, the Government of Mexico City distributed artemisia annua tea bags to Covid-19 patients. An herb that he tested in a clinical trial and still does not know if it is useful as a treatment against the coronavirus.
Mexico distributed tea bags and spent 558 thousand pesos on the purchase of this plant
At the end of the second wave of infections, in February 2021, the kit that was delivered at health kiosks to people with positive results contained medicines and a bag of sweet wormwood tea (Artemisia annua). The local government spent 558 thousand pesos in the purchase of bags from this plant, as stated in the request via transparency with folio 0321500031821.
In 2020, it acquired 860 bags of “60-gram artemisia plus redmexplan herbal teas (artemisia annua, echinacea, purpurea, urtica, urens var, angustofolia)”. And in 2021 he acquired a thousand more bags of “Artemisa annua tisane + tea chai bag with 60 grams. Mixture of aromatic plants in tea cut for human consumption as a food supplement.
This is the only trial that has been undertaken by the local administration. As reported by this newspaper. The government distributed 223,274 treatments with ivermectin during a year, a drug that did not have the support of the World Health Organization. For use in combating the pandemic, to people who tested positive for Covid-19 carried out in kiosks.
So far no results of its effectiveness
The artemisia annua plant submitted it in 2020 to a clinical trial designed and executed by the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition (INCMNSZ). But so far there are no results of its effectiveness for strengthening the immune system. As revealed by a summary of the study in patients with the SARS CoV 2 virus.
The trial included 246 people who tested positive for Covid-19 and who had at least one comorbidity to find out if Artemisia Annua works in combating the coronavirus. It also tested with the active Camostat Mesilato.
The first results of the study, obtained by this newspaper via transparency, show that the people to whom the treatments were applied had fewer complications of the disease. However, a year and a half later, the government continues to analyze laboratory and other clinical results.
The information provided by the Secretary of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of the CDMX (Sectei). He adds that in the case of Artemisia, studies were extended to evaluate the potential of the plant in strengthening the immune system.
Artemisia Annua, whose active ingredient is artemisinin, is widely used to combat malaria. World Health Organization recommends its use in combination treatments against malaria. And Camostat Mesylate is a drug approved in Japan and South Korea for the treatment of pancreatitis.
CONSENT
The group of patients who consumed Artemisia Annua presented a decrease of two or more points on the disease measurement scale. And of the people who used Mesylate, the number of hospitalizations, oxygen requirements and deaths were lower compared to the group that received a placebo. Although the authorities considered that the differences were not significant and did not specify the exact number of cases.
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