As the Covid-19 epidemic progresses in this south-west African country, the government has issued a warning. The authorities have indeed alerted the population to a treatment gaining in popularity involving the use of elephant dung. Without danger, this treatment is however a scam.
Namibia's Covid-19 toll stands at 4,464 cases and 37 deaths . If this country is one of the least affected at the moment, the epidemic is however on the rise. As TV5 Monde explains in an article of August 18, 2020, the authorities are worried. Health Minister Kalumbi Shangul fears unscrupulous people using coronavirus scare to deceive the locals.
As everywhere in the world, Namibia does not have treatment against SARS-CoV-2. Due to the increase in Covid-19 cases, the population is more interested in treatments derived from traditional medicine . However, one of these treatments uses elephant dung. The most gullible therefore allow themselves to be fooled and spend their money in the hope of healing or protecting themselves.
Authorities have already had evidence that significant amounts of elephant droppings had been marketed. In the four corners of the country, traditional doctors use elephant dung to practice inhalations supposedly curing headaches, toothaches or even nosebleeds. Romeo Muvunda, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, however, recalled that it was formally forbidden to collect dung elephants in protected areas. Indeed, this act is an offense liable to a fine.
Let it be said, the pandemic sometimes gives rise to hardly believable excesses . The internet is riddled with fake news and malicious individuals behind massive phishing operations. Some fake news concerns the wearing of masks or even research on vaccines, but others are directly deadly. At the end of March 2020, no less than 300 people died in Iran after believing one of these fake news. It was about a publication of a tabloid that social networks relayed. This one told the story of a British school teacher who was able to cure SARS-CoV-2 with whiskey and honey. Victims thought that drinking high strength alcohol methanol type could kill the coronavirus in their body.
