A Kenyan Scientist has been lauded for his breakthrough in the treatment of a Tuberculosis (TB) cure through the use of a local herb.
Dr. Sospeter Njeru's research findings were published in last month's Cell Press (Heliyon Journal), an internationally acknowledged biomedical journal that reports research findings.
His research will boost the sourcing of new drugs from local plants which will be a breakthrough in the health sector.
The Kenyan researcher alongside his student, Jackson Muema, of the Department of Biochemistry, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) pursued the discovery of the cure by turning to a local herb Aspilia pluriseta which is common in many parts of Kenya.
Communities from Central Kenya are known to use the herb to cure common cold. Njeru based his research by using extracts of the plant to a sample of more than 100 units to determine whether the herb would kill the bacteria.
"We had set a cut-off point of 100 units whereby growth unit of 0-100 would mean the drug killed the bacteria while from 100 and above would indicate the absolute growth of the bacteria without the drug having any effect.
"Surprisingly, most of our samples completely killed the tuberculosis bacteria giving zero growth unit, " said Njeru, who has been working on his research from the Paul-Erlich Institute, division of immunology in Langen (Hessen), Germany.
The scientist noted that the bacteria had become resistant to available drugs hence patients opted to combine up to three drugs for it to take effect.
"Through the government, the cost of the available drugs became affordable. Though these drugs have been heavily criticized for their effectiveness since the patients suffer adverse side effects. There is now a high demand for more effective drugs," he stated.
According to the Director-General for the World Health Organisation, Adhanom Ghebreyesus, TB kills five thousand people every day. The social and economic impacts are devastating including stigma and discrimination.
He advocated for a dynamic, multisectoral approach to finding the cure for the disease known to claim more than a million lives annually.
Elsewhere, Kenyan scientists are making great strides towards groundbreaking discoveries in the health sector. Kenyan researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) have partnered with the University of Oxford to recruit 50 Kenyans for a six-month Gonorrhea vaccine trial.
The vaccine, if successful, will see Kenyan scientists as the first to achieve such a feat given that the disease affects over 87 million people globally.
