• Friday, March 29, 2024
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We can look at other anti-malaria drugs for COVID-19 treatment, health physician says

South Africa starts trial of potential Coronavirus treatment

While there is an increasing search for a coronavirus vaccine amid the recent decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to suspend clinical trial on Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine, a Nigerian health physician has suggested the trial of other anti-malaria drugs.

According to Emeka Anoje, Public Health Physician, if the anti-malaria effect in hydroxyl chloroquine was the main interest in trialling the drug for the treatment of COVID-19 then other anti-malaria drugs should be subject to the same tests.

“There are other anti-malaria drugs and since the anti-malaria effect is what is of interest, perhaps it may be an indication to look out other possible anti-malaria out there that can be subjected to a similar kind of trial to see if they have better safety and efficacy profile, Anoje said on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels TV on Tuesday.

The physician recommended the aforementioned because according to him “we are at risk against time as everyday deaths are being reported around the world. So the option may be to look at what is out there that we can subject to the same level of scrutiny.”

Meanwhile, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said on Monday that it has suspended the trial of hydroxyl chloroquine to evaluate the safety data on the drug as presented to the health body by the Data Safety Monitoring Board.

“As part of our continued response to the pandemic globally, WHO continues to work aggressively on research and development. As you know, more than two months ago, we initiated the Solidarity Trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of four drugs and drug combinations against COVID-19,” he said adding that on Friday, The Lancet published an observational study on Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine and its effects on COVID-19 patients that have been hospitalised.”

He said the authors reported that among patients receiving the drug, when used alone or with a macrolide, they estimated a higher mortality rate.

As of Tuesday, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 had reached about 5.5 million globally and Nigeria with the highest population in Africa accounts for about 8,000 of the infected cases.