Artemisia annua—A Revolution in the History of Tropical Medicine

In tropical countries malaria kills more than a million people every year. The majority are children. That means, a person dies of malaria somewhere in the world at least every 30 seconds. Great advances have been made in pharmaceutical technology, but still many of the poorest people in the world continue to suffer. There is a way forward, it is with Artemisia annua anamed (A-3), which can be grown by smallscale farmers, and by health centers and hospitals in their medicinal gardens. The leaves are then used to make artemisia tea, which has proven itself to be a very effective treatment for malaria.

Presenters : Dr. Hans-Martin Hirt and Richard Tsimba Kandu Dr. Hans-Martin Hirt is pharmacist and the founder of an international NGO called "anamed" or "action for natural medicine in the tropics". Their main area of research is to have an exchange of knowledge with local people how to produce medicine themselves out of medicinal plants...by this, far money may be left to fight hunger in the family!

Richard Tsimba Kandu is a 20-year collaborator of Anamed International. Mr. Kandu is originally from D.R Congo and has resided in Ottawa, Canada since 1994. He is the contact person for anamed Canada.