COVID-19: Efficient protection of contacts simpler than imagined
The Oxford Vaccine for COVID-19 raises the question: “How does this prospective treatment provide efficient protection right now for frontline health workers, many of whom are dying despite the stringent protective measures?”
Answer: It doesn’t. We need something immediately to stop deaths. A simple Ghanaian initiative that is cheap, safe and efficient is in danger of being sidelined by certain “dimensions”.
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Vaccine dimension
Responding to Rionach McCarron and Sandor Bako, who “...hope that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine can be shown as the trials progress”, Dr Joginder Anand, a former Consultant in Public Health England, asked, “Effective for how long? Two months? Six months?”
He then adds, “I plead with those producing and those promoting the vaccine to appreciate that the public is composed of humans; they are not cows.”
Dr John Stone, with more experience about vaccine effects than most doctors, said, “We still do not know enough about the safety of the many prospective vaccine products.”
We Africans have never forgotten what Diddier Fassin and Helen Schneider revealed: that parliamentarians in South Africa rejoiced when Africans died from AIDS.
Indeed, trust, more than science, is what we Africans require with requests for mass vaccinations.
Political dimension
Dr Kamran Abbasi, in his excellent editorial, stated: “Health is a political choice, and politics is a continuous struggle for power among competing interests.”
Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the field of African health where non-Africans in developed countries have a big say in advising us Africans.
A few foreign experts with powerful commercial links like Big Pharma can direct our health services.
Dr Abbasi cautioned even the British Prime Minster to “separate science and politics”. Former President Trump named the drug to use for COVID-19 and he withdrew from the WHO.
Scientific dimension
“Follow the science” is the phrase now, but one scientific study says hydroxychloroquine (HQC) is fantastic for treating COVID-19, while another says hydroxychloroquine is no good. WHO says “good” then “bad”, France says, “Non!”
Science can be ignored or dismissed with a phrase like “there is no evidence” even when evidence is overwhelming. Why ignore Vitamin C as a destroyer of coronavirus and other viruses when evidence is overwhelming?
Liposomal Vitamin C also delivers big doses and is effective. The only caution required is exclusion of those with G6PD deficiency. Americans are flocking to purchase Vitamin C.
Where does hydrogen peroxide come in?
Dilute hydrogen peroxide can help destroy invading viruses, bacteria and fungi. We have suggested the deployment of hydrogen peroxide as an oral-cleansing agent to destroy the virus.
None of our clinical research team members and their relatives protecting themselves only with face masks and using hydrogen peroxide while caring for COVID-19 patients have had symptoms suggestive of the disease.
At the Shai Osudoku District Hospital in Dodowa, seven members of staff with minimal protective clothing who cared for a COVID-19 patient and who used hydrogen peroxide mouthwash did not contract the disease. Previously, 27 other staff at that hospital had become infected caring for COVID-19 patients.
Dr Richard Cheng’s success with Vitamin C is published and known to the WHO, NIH and CDC. To augment the effect of Vitamin C, We use nasal drops containing 0.5 per cent hydrogen peroxide and reduce the risk of infecting healthcare workers.
Challenge to care homes for elderly
(i) Select some care homes with between 100 and 200 residents, plus about 20 to 30 staff, including cleaners and cooks.
(ii) Examine the March, April, May and June 2020 records for COVID-19, living and dead, and note the numbers.
(iii) Begin the oro-pharyngeal hydrogen peroxide exercise three times a day for everybody in September, October, November and December.
(iv) For those too ill, for example those with strokes where gargling will be dangerous because of potential choking, use an absorbable foam attached to a stick to do oral cleansing gently after dipping the foam in glass of 1.5 per cent hydrogen peroxide three or more times a day.
(v) Daily visitors may also use the nasal drops, mouthwash and gargling with dilute hydrogen peroxide.
(vi) Compare the four-month March to June COVID-19 morbidity and mortality figures with those of September, October, November and December 2020.
(vii) Weekly testing for viable virus in culture, not just viral RNA on swabs, relative to infectivity, plus usual laboratory profiles.
(viii) Send findings in a communication to the editor of British Medical Journal.
Other treatments
For those who have been in contact with COVID-19 afflicted persons, gargling with dilute hydrogen peroxide is recommended.
However, gargling may not be easy for children. Use the oro-pharyngeal toileting exercise with a foam or sponge dipped in hydrogen peroxide. For very young children, use dilute honey, one teaspoonful in a glass of water.
Bees secrete the enzyme glucose oxidase into honey. When honey is diluted, this enzyme reacts with water and oxygen, releasing hydrogen peroxide.
Although the level of hydrogen peroxide produced by diluting honey in this manner is about 1,000 times less than that in the three per cent solution found in drug stores, it cannot be dismissed for lack of potency.
Ghanaians too poor to afford the 1.5 per cent hydrogen peroxide available in many pharmacies may be encouraged to use Neem twigs as a chewing-stick because it is a more powerful antimalarial agent than chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine (HQC), which some have found effective against COVID-19.
The Neem plant (Azadirachta indica) has been named first among “ten indigenous plants which have been saving Ghanaian lives” for centuries.
Would scoffers not exclaim, “Come on! When Oxford brains produce vaccines for COVID-19, all you from the dark continent can offer are chewing sticks and dilute honey?”
But our recommended solution satisfies the challenges presented by COVID-19. “Ex Africa semper quidquid novi,” (Count on Africa for always producing something new) is what Pliny the Elder would have proclaimed 2,000 years ago.
The writer is a Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Former Consultant Physician, Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell and Other Haemoglobinopathies, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital; Director, Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, Korle Bu, Accra.
Writer’s E-mail: [email protected]
Other writers: Emerita Professor, Isabella A. Quakyi. PhD FGA.
Hannah N. G. Ayettey-Anie.
Kwamena W Sagoe.
Mary N. B. Ayettey-Adamafio
Merley Newman-Nartey and Ruth N. A. Ayettey Brew
Nii Otu Nartey. BDS MSc FAAOP MRCD FWACS FGCS. Retired Associate Professor, University of Ghana Dental School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana.
Albert G. B. Amoah MB ChB PhD FWACP FGCP FGA. Retired Professor, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana.
Andrews Seth Ayettey. MB ChB PhD. Emeritus Professor, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences. University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
Corresponding Author: Professor Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu [email protected] Twitter@profkonoteyahul
— Culled from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
