The first population intervention in Cuba with the natural product Curmeric, with proven antibacterial action, began to be administered to suspected patients and contacts of COVID-19 positive cases in the five health areas of Ciego de Ávila.

With prior authorization from the Innovation Committee of the Ministry of Public Health, it will be gradually extended to Florencia, Chambas and Ciro Redondo in order to measure its effectiveness, according to Tania Valdés González, head of the Teragnostic Laboratory and National Development Projects of Curcuma longa Products.

The specialist said that it contains extracts of Curcuma longa and uses high technology to make determinations of its beneficial properties, while laboratory and clinical studies have shown that it is safe and that it has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects against the bovine Coronavirus, from the same subgenus of SARS-CoV-2.

Another background to take into account is that, in the first months of confrontation with the virus, more than 90 workers located in vulnerable areas of the Calixto García Clinical Surgical Hospital, used it and showed fewer infections than those who did not use it.

Curmeric is used orally and nasally and was previously subjected to observational clinical studies, in which 800 people from the Havana municipalities of Regla and Plaza de la Revolución participated; the sale of the product was also authorized in the Natural and Homeopathic Products Pharmacies in those areas.

As part of the research led by the Calixto García Clinical Surgical Hospital team, in conjunction with the Center for Technological Applications and Nuclear Development (CEADEN), Curcuma longa supplements reduce blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides in patients with diabetes and dyslipidemias.

The results of the population intervention carried out in Ciego de Ávila will be available within a period of between one and two months.