During an online interactive session with journalists yesterday, the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye, acknowledged that “chloroquine can be used in the early stage of the COVID-19 infection as prophylactic treatment.”
Elaborating on that, she said “On March 20, 2020, during a press briefing, I said I was going through a literature and I found that chloroquine and remdesivir killed COVID-19 in vitro – that is in the laboratory. In early March, there was a publication where 100 patients were treated with chloroquine in 10 hospitals across Chinese cities. I made a statement that chloroquine is only for clinical trial treatment. There has to be a level of confidence that depends on the number of subjects and results.”
She explained that the disease has four stages that include pre-exposure, early-stage, severe stage and post-infection.
“We are now understanding that it is not one drug that can be effective for COVID-19. It depends on the phase of the disease. We started working with Lagos State on a clinical trial for chloroquine. We are getting to know that that it is working.
“My colleague in Ghana has a robust study on chloroquine use on COVID-19 patients that is going to be released soon. Also, several people that had COVID-19 in Senegal recovered after using the drug.”
Speaking on the rise of fake drugs and Tramadol between 2011 and 2018, Adeyeye said “Falsified medicines bring burden to our laboratories. We need a detection device for exact information.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said Nigeria and 171 other nations were in discussions to participate in COVAX, a global initiative for affordable acquisition of licensed and secure vaccines by nations globally.
