By Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
The Chief Medical Director of Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Dr Philemon Golwa, has challenged the Plateau State Research Committee on COVID-19 and other Infectious Diseases to take advantage of the green savannah by looking deep in its quest to find a cure for the disease.
He equally said that despite the nation’s failures as a third world country, “we can still foster ahead and bulldoze our pass ways through those difficult terrains and then get the work done properly”.
Golwa disclosed this when the Committee paid him a courtesy call at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, in Jos, the State Capital.
According to him: “I think your work is even made easier, with integration of substances with the western drugs; and I think it is something we can really put our focus and do it well.
“Sometimes back, we have been told about Madagascar herbal substances, that they have arrived, we only read it in the pages of papers, we don’t know how it really can be translated.
“But I still believe that West Africa in general has more of the green savannah, and so most of the herbs are really produced around here and I’m sure if we look deep we will be able to get so many of them that can be the solution to most of the challenges we are having now.”
The CMD further stated that the hospital is open to the committee and assured of the hospital’s readiness to partner with it.
Golwa who is a Neuro-Surgeon reiterated that the benefits of such researches will not be for only Plateau people, but for the entire world.
Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the Committee, Prof Noel Wannang, said: “We have quickly started our work, we have finished the nitty-gritty we could do at the theoretical level, that is to explore, find out the nature on the biology of the pathogen.
“We have gone ahead in looking at the conventional and then the herbal or alternative drugs into the treatment.
“We are now moving into the next level of treatment trials, and we have to pay courtesy calls to the treatment institutions.
“Cardinally, what brought us to this hospital today, is to introduce ourselves to the administrative team, and also seek for their collaboration because research is not a one man thing, is not a one team issue.
“In a research you need alot of research assistants, technical assistance, facilities and most importantly you need the patients which we don’t have, but the hospitals have them; universities have the laboratories, chemicals, reagents and equipment, so it is a collaboration.”
Wannang who is a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Jos, maintained that: “I can assure you, it is not an easy thing and equally not a difficult one, but we have to look inwards.”
He commanded Governor Simon Lalong for the initiative adding that, “I believe that the solution is close and we will soon get to it.”
It would be recalled that, on May 18, 2020, Governor Simon Lalong, inaugurated the Committee with the mandate to quickly look for intervention into the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Committee was made up of 13 members. The comprised of pharmacists, natural scientists, virologists, biochemists, molecular biologists, medical laboratory scientists, veterinary experts, physicians, among others.
