PEACE (Sputnik) – Bolivian President Luis Arce said his government should promote the use of traditional medicine to strengthen the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on the experience of farmers producing infusions. syrups and ointments from native herbs.
“We have asked the Vice Ministry of Communication to be able to spread this so that Bolivians have access to information on all the products we have and we can deal with such epidemics,” Arce said at an event at the presidential headquarters.
The governor made the announcement to representatives of about twenty associations and micro-enterprises producing traditional remedies, which will hold from the week that a traveling fair across the country, in support of the official plan to combat the pandemic .
Maple has regretted that the Transitional government of | Áñez, In management Bolivia suffered last year the first wave of contagion with the new coronavirus, has “disqualified” traditional medicine based on “products ancestrally used to prevent and combat many diseases.”
The producers showed Arce, in the act broadcast on state television, various syrups, tonics, creams, infusions and food bars made from wild vegetables such as wira wira, matico, molle, quina, maca, among others.
Producers also presented infusions containing eucalyptus, a tree that although not native to America but has widespread use in treatments for respiratory ailments.
Natalia Gumiel, representative of the “organic” producers, said that in recent months and despite the lack of government recognition, traditional medicine products were used intensively as prevention and treatment of COVID-19, especially in the poorest sectors of the population.
“In the countryside, these traditional medicines have been almost the only way to fight the pandemic and have been very effective,” he said, while several growers reported several cases of total cure of COVID-19 with native herbal treatments.
Gumiel added that other advantages of the products presented were their low price and their processing with quality and hygiene standards that facilitated their marketing.
Maple pledged “full support and commitment” not only to promote the immediate use of these products but also to improve and increase their production.
Natural anti-covid products, which until now were accessible only in a few craft markets, will be marketed from next week in the supermarket chain of the state food company EMAPA, announced the Minister of Productive Development, Néstor Huanca.
At the same time, the government is implementing projects to strengthen the hospital infrastructure and is about to launch a plan for mass detection of COVID-19 infections, which will be followed by a vaccination campaign that will start with the drug Sputnik V developed in Russia .
Bolivia bought 5.2 million doses of Sputnik V, of which about 6,000 will arrive this month to be administered to medical personnel, according to an official announcement.