UPDATED: NAFDAC declares chloroquine an effective treatment for covid-19
The health agency, however, emphasised that the drug is potent at the early stage of the virus
Speaking with journalists, director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known. She, however, added that the drug is only capable of tackling the virus at the early stage based on the research carried out by NAFDAC.
Mrs Adeyeye said in March 2020, the agency discovered that chloroquine is effective in fighting Covid-19 as it was used to treat over 100 patients in about 10 hospitals in China.
According to her, there are four stages of the disease which are pre-exposure, early stage, severe stage and post-infection.
“We realise that chloroquine can be used in the early stage of the COVID-19 infection as prophylactic treatment, Science does not lie.
“In March 2020, I was going through a literature and I found (out) that chloroquine and remdesivir killed COVID-19 in vitro – that is in the laboratory. “We are now understanding that it is not one drug that can be effective for COVID-19 which depends on the phase of the disease.
We started working with Lagos State on clinical trial for chloroquine. We are getting to know that that it is working,” She said.
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