Tu Youyou's Nobel Prize for Medicine award meritorious: expert

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine won by Chinese herbal expert Tu Youyou is a welcome development based on merit, considering her contributions to the cause of human health, Bunmi Saidat Salami, a Nigerian pharmacology expert, said on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the expert described Tu as "a very renowned, hardworking woman who has done a number of researches, including a research on schistosomiasis, and got a breakthrough on some of the drugs that are being used now."

"[And now] she researched on Artemisinin, which is a local herb that is being used in China, and she actually extracted the active ingredients. She submitted herself as the first human subject to test the drug," the Nigerian expert said, noting Artemisinin, which she (Tu) discovered, has significantly reduced the mortality rates for patients suffering from malaria.

Tu shared the Nobel Prize with Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced Monday.

"Even when only few people believed in her, Tu showed commitment and went all-out in her efforts in bringing out a very good thing," the Nigerian expert said.

Artemisinin, also known as Qinghaosu, is derived from a Chinese herb called Artemisia annua. There are so many other derivatives of Artemisinin that are now used in modern day medicine to treat malaria.

At present, there is even a research on Artemisinin for the treatment of cancer, said Salami who is also an expert on community health and public health services.

She added: "Artemisinin is a wonder drug. The fact that it has been working is why the World Health Organization has decided that it should not be used alone, just to curb the resistance that was built in chloroquine with the parasite causing malaria.

Artemisinin is said to work well in curing Plasmodium falciparum, which is the most common malaria parasite in Asia and Africa, thus saving more than 100,000 lives annually in Africa alone.

Gloria Omoghede, an attendant in one of the big pharmacies in Abuja said day in, day out, many Nigerians walk into the drugstore to purchase anti-malaria drugs which, especially, are derivatives of Artemisinin.

Malaria is responsible for 60 percent of outpatient visits to health facilities, 30 percent of childhood deaths, 25 percent of deaths in children under one year, and 11 percent of maternal deaths, according to the Nigerian National Malaria Strategic Plan 2014-2020.

An estimated 100 million malaria cases and about 300,000 deaths each year make Nigeria the country with the highest number of malaria casualties worldwide, official statistics, released during the World Malaria Day 2015, said. Endit