A team of medical doctors in RD Congo, Jerome Munyangi and Michel Idumbo, with Lucile Cornet-Vernet and Pierre Lutgen, have run randomized clinical trials on a large scale in the Maniema province with the participation of some 1000 malaria infected patients. The trials were run in conformity with the WHO procedures and compared Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra with ACTs (Coartem and ASAQ)

For all the parameters tested herbal treatment was significantly better than ACTs: faster clearance for fever and parasitemia, absence of parasites on day 28 for 99.5% of the Artemisia treatments and 79.5% only for the ACT treatments. A total absence of side effects was evident for the treatments with the plants, but for the 498 patients treated with ACTs, 210 suffered from diarrhea, and/or nausea, pruritus, hypoglycemia etc. The efficiency was equivalent for Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra. More important even is the observation for the total absence of gametocytes after 7 days treatment with the herb. A tremendous hope for malaria eradication.The resultshavebeencommunicatedtothelocalhealthauthorities, andtotheMinistriesofHealthand Research in theRDCongowhoweresupportiveofthesetrials. The draft of a paper is almost ready and will be submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal. The financial support for the trials comes from the association MoreforLess in Paris.

This is not the only clinical trial run in 2015 with Artemisia annua aqueous infusions. In Benin the University of Abomey, together with the Universities of Louvain and of Liege, run a large scale trial with Artemisia annua grown in Benin. The trial involved 130 malaria infected patients. Fever clearance was evident after 48 hours and parasitemia decreased by 70% already on the first day, and remained 100 % absent on days 14 and 28. No side effects were noticed. The research team from Benin strongly recommends for African countries to replace the expensive and now often ineffective ACTs by Artemisia annua tea (H Zime-Diawara et al., Int J BiolChemSci 2015, 9-2, 692-702).

These results confirm results obtained by the association IFBV-Belherb and her partners in many small scale trials in several African countries over the last 6 years. Therapeutic efficiency always was > 95% and prophylaxy was noticed and documented. Artemisia defeats schistosomiasis

In parallel with the clinical trials run by a team of medical doctors in the province of Maniema on the efficiency of Artemisia annua and Artemisia afra against malaria, (see Breaking News Jan.5 on www.malariaworld.org) they have completed another large scale randomized, double blind trial against schistosomiasis, Artemisia vs Praziquantel.

The results confirm previous anecdotic results from several countries in Africa. Botharms in thistrial had 400 infectedpatients. The treatment efficiency was 97 % in the Artemisia arm and 71% in the Prazi quantel arm. Noside effects were noticed in the Artemisia treatment.

Praziquantel caused vomiting in 26.5% of the patients, abdominal pain in 18.5%, cephalalgy in 15.5%. Veryimpressiveisthefactthatthe Artemisia treatmentledto an unexpectedalmostcompleteabsenceofeggs in feces after 2 months.

Schistosomiasis kills 150 000 Africans per year and more than 70 000 000 are infected. A neglected disease in neglected, poor populations where the only existing drug, Praziquantel, loses efficiency year after year. These young African doctors have run these trials despite the oposition and intimidations of Bigpharma WHO. They will win the battle against neglected tropical diseases where  Western chemical monotherapies have failed