Ebola: LUTH Consultant arrested over Ewedu claims

The Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lagos State Teaching hospital, LUTH, Prof Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu, who laid claims that Corchorus olitorius (Ewedu leaves) was capable of curing the Ebola Virus Disease, has been arrested.

This was disclosed by the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii, who briefed the press on Tuesday.

Prof. Oshitelu made the claim recently at the 2014 African Traditional Medicine organised by NAFDAC at ikeja, Lagos, in regards for the urgent need of cooperation between Traditional Medicine Practitioners and Conventional Medicine Practitioners.

She said Ewedu cures Ebola by improving an infected person’s immune system, likewise providing prevention against the deadly virus for uninfected persons.

Her words:“The nutrients inside Ewedu is so much that it will kill Ebola by preventing the virus from replicating and destroying more organs in the body. This would immediately stop the symptoms such as high fever, stooling and vomiting, ultimately, leading to the cure.

According to Dr. Orhii, the claim is considered dangerous because it was made by a medical and pharmaceutical professor in a precarious time.

He said:“Yes, we are going to arrest the Prof Adebukola Adefule Oshitelu because she did not heed to our advise and also because she made this statement in an event organised by NAFDAC, that is the “2014 African Traditional medicine Day”.

He added: “One of the consequences of this unsupported and possibly fraudulent claim is that people may be misled into false sense of invincibility on the account of eating Ewedu or Bitter Kola and drop their guard.”