The World Health Organization (WHO) has included artesunate, a treatment for malaria, in its latest group of drugs to be tested for their capacity to treat Covid-19 patients in hospital.
It is one of the derivatives of artemisinin, extracted from the artemisia annua plant, the main herb behind Madagascar’s purported Covid-19 herbal cure announced last year.
Artesunate will be part of a global trial together with imatinib, a drug used for certain cancers, and infliximab used for diseases of the immune system.
The study is expected to be completed by May next year.
