BPOM Dismisses Herbal Medicines as COVID-19 Cure
Translator
Editor
5 May 2020 16:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) clarified that it had never issued an approval statement saying the effectiveness of herbal medicines, or locally known jamu, to cure the coronavirus disease or COVID-19.
“To date, BPOM has never given such approval,” said the agency as quoted from its website today, May 5, in response to rampant claims that jamu can be a remedy for patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
The House of Representatives (DPR) COVID-19 task force even promoted herbal medicinal products dubbed Herbavid-19 that they donated to hospitals as the cure of the disease.
Therefore, BPOM called on the public to be more critical and not easily be influenced by someone’s advertisement or statement on such medicines.
The agency underlined that jamu equipped with BPOM distribution permit had passed the evaluation process on safety, effectiveness, and quality. So the public is advised to check any circulating medicine through cekbpom.go.id and make sure that the drugs’ packaging is in good condition with BPOM’s permit.
“Read the label of the drugs carefully,” it said.
M ROSSENO AJI