By Edith Igbokwe
The use of ‘Agbo’, the herbal concoction has continued to trend among the people in Oshodi as a preventive medicine against contracting coronavirus.
The consumers of the agbo believed that taking the herbal concoction will either protect them from contracting coronavirus or cure them of malaria fever which has the same symptoms as COVID -19.
ECHONEWS gathered that many of them have avoided going to hospital for test when they have any symptom, especially during the coronavirus pandemic due to the fear of being tested positive to Covid-19 while some complained of lack of funds to foot medical bills.
These have given rise to the frequent use of herbs as an alternative to cure malaria and prevent them from the prevailing diseases.
ECHONEWS detected that the ingredients used to make the agbo include lemon grass and lime which are cooked together and sold to consumers between N100 and N200 per cup.
One of the Agbo sellers who spoke to ECHONEWS, Kehinde Ogundiya said: “We heard that coronavirus has the same symptoms as malaria fever and people patronise us more to prevent themselves from the disease believing that if they cure malaria, they have cured coronavirus.”
Ogundiya explained that the herbs have been helpful to people who lack the funds to go to hospital for the treatment of malaria although she could not assure this reporter that the herbal concoction truly prevents coronavirus.
Another herbal medicine seller, Mrs. Balogun Idowu at Odunbakun Street, Oshodi disclosed that people were afraid of visiting the hospital “because they heard that any sickness is tagged as coronavirus in the hospital once the symptoms look like malaria so, they prefer to use ‘agbo’ to visiting the hospital.”
Some of the herbal concoction users also spoke to ECHONEWS, giving their reasons for taking agbo as a preventive medicine against contracting coronavirus instead of visiting hospital.
One of them, Ramoni Bello said: “It is not every disease that the doctors can cure through the use of injection, our forefathers used herbs to cure so many diseases and it’s still effective now. For me, herb is gbogbonise (cure of all ailments) because it flushes out every disease from the system especially when taken before eating anything in the morning.”
Olatunbosun Lasisi added: “Agbo is very good for coronavirus ailment. Since it has the same symptoms as malaria such as headache, fever, stooling, body pains which herb has been curing in the time past and I believe it flushed down to the bone which tablet drugs cannot do.”
He said with frequent use of herbs and cleanliness, one can stay safe from the prevailing disease.
This has been trending despite the warning by medical experts against self-medication especially as the world is still looking for a viable medicine to cure coronavirus.
The experts said the only preventive measure for now is to comply with guidelines such as keeping social distancing, use of face masks while in public, regular washing of hands and use of alcohol based hand sanitisers.
Globally, there has not been a confirmed medicine or herb for the cure of Covid-19, all the proposed ones are still under trial.
Based on this, governments at all levels have continued to enlighten the residents about the effects of coronavirus, given guidelines to curtail community spread.
The Medical Officer of Health (MOH), Isolo LCDA, Dr. Baqiah Nojimudeen-Yesufu, who termed the act of patronising the herbal concoction as ignorance of the people, said the governments need to intensity awareness programmes at the grassroots, saying many people are still ignorant of the effects of coronavirus hence, the reason for the increase in the positive cases daily reported.
