.jpg)
| ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
By:
HARRISON MAINA | ||||||||||||
| Posted:
Jun,25-2018 18:00:01
| ||||||||||||
|
CAMBRIDGE. MA__Kenya's Kisumu county Governor and father to Award winning Hollywood star, Lupita Nyong'o, the Hon Anyang Nyong'o has thrown his weight behind a myriad of new medical treatments extracted from Cannabis (Marijuana) being developed by top African doctors and researchers in laboratories at various World Class Universities. Submissions by experts attending the just concluded annual Global Health Catalyst summit at the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, indacated that the new Cannabis medications have been proven effective in treating some forms of cancer and other ailments as well managing debilitating pain. It is at this Conference that a new fascinating telemedicine program was also launched to increase access to cancer care for patients in Africa. According to Dr. William Ngwa, Director of the Global Health Catalyst at Dana Faber Cancer Center and a professor at the Harvard Medical School who is of Cameroonian descent, the program will be piloted in Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Tanzania, and Nigeria before being implemented other African countries in 2019. While taking part in a special session dubbed "Wakanda Diaspora" in recognition of the black panther block buster movie that has buoyed the image of African people as intelligent, smart and innovative, a film in which his daughter, Lupita Nyongo played a leading role, the older Nyong'o said that time has come when African inventors need to build on the traditional medicines administered by African traditional doctors and medicine men that worked well but have lost ground to modern pharmaceutical companies and integrate them with modern medicine for better outcomes.
This, the governor said, would minimize many severe side effects associated with most modern drugs on patients. "Many people in Africa are living in pain and taking pain relieving drugs which are sometimes very toxic," he told a panel of top doctors, researchers, students from the African Diaspora, representing many African and Caribbean countries during the 2-day summit that ended Sunday May 29. "This kind of interaction is very important. It shows that if we could have integrated African traditional healing in modern medicine, we would avoid putting toxins in bodies masquerading as painkillers that end up harming you more than anything else," the Governor said. Governor Nyong'o further added that he was very surprised and impressed at the advancements the African doctors were making in conjunction with their counterparts in the Western world to bring forth new Cannabis drugs that have shown clear evidence of relieving major aches in patients suffering diseases such as cancer, glaucoma, headaches and other ailments that bring extreme pain to human beings and interfere with their quality of life. Nyong'o said the advancements were creating a win-win situation for everyone since reports of Africans now engaging in large-scale farming of Cannabis geared at providing raw materials to the medical marijuana labs are becoming all too common. "This sounds like very good progress for Africans as it has potential for uplifting people from poverty as well in addition to healing many diseases. If you can address the problem where a small scale farmer can also be able to benefit from Cannabis farming, then we can be able to help a lot of people." He thanked Raymond Dabney, CEO of Cannabis Science Inc. for great innovations the company was making in developing a wide range of effective medical treatments from Cannabis harvested in their large-scale farm in California. "However, the farming and use of Cannabis for treatment has to be well regulated to avoid abuse by many people especially the youth of today," added the governor. A prostate cancer survivor, Professor Nyong'o narrated two moving real life experiences--one that involved his grandfather's self-treatment of his pains with Cannabis in their village hut back in the day, and a recent one after he survived a horrific car accident that left him in severe pain--which, in retrospect, convinced him that Cannabis based treatments need to be promoted and their research accelerated. "If these medications have been scientifically proven to relieve many aches, then I think it is very important we support their use. I think I need them," Nyong'o said in reference to the pain he endures from his situations in life, causing a light moment in the auditorium. He invited the researches and doctors present to purchase a certain university in his Kisumu County that is up for sale due to cash problems so that they can use it to advance research into Cannabis treatments as well as train Kenyans doctors and nurses in other health treatment programs.
"If by the end of this summit we get you do buy that University in my county, I will have done my work coming all the way here to attend this summit," Nyong'o added while thanking all who attended. The summit attracted various African diaspora experts in medicine, law and entrepreneurship operating in the current, fast evolving health industry. "Our expertise is to use Cannabis to treat many diseases. We have developed pills, creams, patches and more for various ailments. There is definitely a possibility that we can make a formulation for Asthma that can be put in inhalers so as to help many patients out there," said Dabney of Cannabis Science Inc. while responding to questions from the audience. More excitement was generated by progress made by a leading Jamaican Pharmaceutical company, Medicanja as presented by their CEO, The Honorable Dr. Henry Lowe. Dr. Lowe said that when Medicanja made global headlines recently with their breakthrough Cannabis based treatments; many people took it with a grain of salt but have now come around to realizing the great value offered by the black owned Pharmaceutical Company. The company currently boasts of laboratories at a major university University in Washington DC . Lowe said the Medicanja has now developed a variety of treatments and pain relievers for many diseases well branded and packaged like any other medicnices found in local pharmacies. Dr. Lowe said that he was impressed and encouraged at the rate at which many patients from all over the world are now using Medicanja products to deal with their situations, a good sign since many people have also tended to use Chinese and Indian medicine in conjunction with modern treatments but have never recognized treatments discovered by African inventors.
However, during a closing dinner held at the Jimmy Fund Center hall attended by over 200 guests, Kwanele Asante, a health industry lawyer cautioned that all medical advancements witnessed at the summit and coming out in the future need to account for the privacy protections of patients as well as their rights. She urged researches and doctors to have conversations with their patients in regards to many legal issues that may arise prior to make sure they are in compliance with local laws prior administering the treatments. May guests present said that they hoped many Africans in the Diaspora and motherland will be open to taking a second look at the Cannabis based medications without cultural and religious biases that may prevent some from benefiting. "This 2018 Summit was a great success with much new collaboration formed and plenty of knowledge sharing," said Dr. Ngwa, the summit chief organizer who is also a renowned inventor and philanthropist. He urged more Africans in the Diaspora to attend future Global Summit events in big numbers to witness gains made and support the effort. Dr. Arikana Chihombori Quao, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the African Union Mission to the USA based in Washington DC attended the summit. A Medical Dr. by profession, Dr. Quao made a rousing speech in recognition of the African day that had just been celebrated in the run up to the Global Health Catalyst summit. The Ambassador also urged African doctors to involve women and children in discussing treatment options for their families as they were important pillars in the process and keeping information away from them has been extremely counterproductive. Others who attended the event included Dr. Brylyne Chitsunge, the Pan African Ambassador for Food Security as well as representatives of several African Diaspora Community organizations among them Leonard Tishenge of the Pan African Network, Voury Ignoba of the Africans in Boston organization, Deeqo Jibril, a Somali-American refugee who unsuccessfully ran for a Boston City Council seat last year. The event was organized by the Harvard Global Health Catalyst with focus on catalyzing high impact USA-Africa collaborations to eliminate global health disparities. VIDEO
| ||||||||||||
|
Source:
AJABU AFRICAN NEWS
| ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
RSS