The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has reportedly approved for the use of Chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients.
ECOWAS supports supplementary anti-viral treatment of coronavirus with hydroxychloroquine but said it should be for mild forms of the virus.
That means only patients displaying mild symptoms of the virus can receive hydroxychloroquine treatment for between 5-7 days.
In parts of the sub-region, health experts have been researching on the efficacy of the anti-malarial drug for treating Covid-19.
One ECOWAS researcher, Emmanuel Bensah told Africa Feeds that “in Togo, doctors are using Chloroquine to treat patients with the virus.”
Senegal is already experimenting with the drug for patients while Burkina Faso has said it will soon launch clinical trials for testing of Chloroquine as one of the drugs to fight coronavirus.
Europe using Chloroquine
Last week the French government also reversed an earlier ban on hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID19 patients.
The ban was reversed in light of successful clinical studies showing significant efficacy against the virus.
Hydroxychloroquine may now be prescribed to treat COVID-19 in France, according to the government.
Earlier this month Australian researchers said some Covid-19 patients have responded ‘very well’ to drugs used to treat malaria.
A team of infectious disease experts at the University of Queensland in Brisbane revealed that the medication helped to wipe out COVID-19 infections.
Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug works in a different way and is given to people to prevent malaria infections if they are bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite.
The drug works by salts inside them poisoning parasites and preventing them from growing inside human red blood cells.
India, Hungary & the United Kingdom have all banned export of the drug to save supply for themselves.
Jordan and France authorized use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 while Bahrain claims success with drug on coronavirus patients.
Source: Africafeeds.com
