Artemisia

Every year, malaria kills between five hundred thousand and one million people. Half of humanity lives in malaria-affected areas, and between two and five hundred million people are infected each year. In addition to causing death and inflicting terrible neurological delays on survivors, the socio-economic consequences are severe. Anti-malarial drugs, in addition to causing problematic side-effects and being too expensive for most sufferers, develop resistance mechanisms in the parasite.

However, a plant known for thousands of years in China, and locally in Africa, cures this ailment: Artemisia annua. Taken as an herbal tea, it cures 98% of cases and interrupts the infernal cycle of transmission. Dr Lucile Cornet-Vernet, an orthodontist in Paris, heard about it one day in 2012 from her friends Alexandre and Sonia Poussin, who had been saved from malaria by this mugwort. She decided to make the study and dissemination of Artemisia her life's work. This is the story of the incredible medical adventure of a David in petticoats against the Goliath of pharmaceuticals and global organizations.

It's a long and arduous road to the total elimination of malaria, but news of the curative efficacy of this natural remedy spreads like wildfire among patients. Lucile Cornet-Vernet, backed by serious scientific studies and the association she has set up, the Maison de l'Artemisia, is proving to the world that the power of plants is the strongest to defeat this disease.

Lucile Cornet-Vernet and Laurence Couquiaud - Éditions Actes Sud - 192 pages