Chloroquine
Brazilian president’s son contracts coronavirus
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said Tuesday he has tested positive for the new coronavirus but was asymptomatic. The 39-year-old senator’s office said in a statement he was “feeling fine,” isolating at home and taking the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, which his father has aggressively pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 despite studies finding it is ineffective against the virus. Known for his staunch support of his father, the younger Bolsonaro is under investigation for an alleged embezzlement scheme when he was a state lawmaker for Rio de Janeiro. He is the fourth member of the presidential family to test positive for the virus. Bolsonaro himself, 65, caught it last month, forcing the far-right leader, a fierce critic of lockdown measures agai...
PTF decries continued refusal by hospitals to treat patients for fear of coronavirus
The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 (PTF) has decried the continued refusal by medical institutions including federal tertiary institutions to receive and treat patients for fear COVID-19. PTF lamented that this development has resulted in several unfortunate and avoidable fatalities. Meanwhile, the PTF will conclude its assessment on the impact of the measures put in place and further recommendations would be submitted to the President for a decision within the next seventy hours. Chairman of PTF and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who disclosed this at the daily Press Briefing in Abuja, noted that Nigeria is having more deaths from non-attendance to other diseases than even COVID 19 adding that the reason for the greater emphasis on COVID 19 is ...
Lagos conducts 16,000 coronavirus tests
The Lagos State Government says it has conducted about 16, 000 COVID-19 tests at a cost of N40, 000 to N50, 000 per test. Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state Commissioner for Health, made this known at the Lagos COVID-19 update on Thursday. Abayomi said that there were plans to ramp up testing capacity to about one thousand tests on a daily basis. He said that Lagos had conducted the highest number of COVID-19 tests in Nigeria, with four testing laboratories, and planned to increase the testing sites in the coming weeks. According to him, as the state ramps up its testing capacity, there will be need to subside the cost of the test, either through insurance or donor funds. “For now, the Lagos State Government is providing COVID-19 tests free of charge,” he said. The commissioner said that the st...
Coronavirus: Lagos begins chloroquine clinical trial this week
The Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, has said the state will this week commence the clinical trial treatment of COVID-19 using chloroquine as approved by NAFDAC. The state, which is the epicentre of the virus in the country, had previously disclosed plans to carry out the chloroquine clinical trial. Omotoso, in an interview with newsmen on Saturday, said, “We are ready for the chloroquine clinical trial because we have just secured all the approvals. The documentation has also been completed. Those that will be used for the trials are ready too. By next week we should be ready for the trial. “Also, Lagos got a supply of additional 20,000 testing kits, although we were expecting 40,000. It means that the testing will increase now.” In a related devel...
Oyo discharges 11 coronavirus patients
The Oyo State Task Force on COVID-19, on Friday, recorded a major victory in its ongoing fight against the novel Coronavirus when it discharged 11 persons after they tested negative to COVID-19 twice. A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted a member of the Task Force and former Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Temitope Alonge, as saying that after the discharge of the 11 cases, the Centre now had 32 patients, and that all but one, were in stable condition. The statement added that of the 11 persons discharged at the Infectious Disease Centre, Olodo, Ibadan, three were females and eight were males. According to Alonge, eight of the discharged persons were the Northerners who came from...
Raymond Dokpesi Jnr asks NCDC to provide his coronavirus test results
Chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi Jnr, has recovered from coronavirus. Newsmen report that the founder of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, and two of his grandchildren also recovered from coronavirus on Thursday and were discharged from the University of Abuja Treatment Centre. Announcing the improvement in his health in an appreciation letter published on ait.live on Friday, the young Dokpesi said officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control called him on Thursday night to inform him that he tested negative for coronavirus, adding that two other family members have also recovered from the infection. He noted that while receiving treatment at the Abuja isolation facility, he started feeling well when the combination of azithromycin, chloroquine and zinc w...
NAFDAC warns against use of Chloroquine for coronavirus treatment
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has, again, warned Nigerians against taking Chloroquine as treatment for Coronavirus (COVID-19). “Nobody should buy Chloroquine and use it. If you have COVID-19, go to a doctor. We have warned Nigerians and shall do that again. Do not take Chloroquine,” Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC’s Director General, told newsmen on Thursday in Abuja. “The delay in approving some of the drugs for treatment of the virus is because of the clinical trials the agency is carrying out on them. “So far, no group or individual has proffered any solution to the treatment or management of the pandemic,” she said. Mrs Adeyeye, a professor, said the Chinese government carried out lots of trials on Chloroquine before it approved its use for treatmen...
Abuja doctor explains coronavirus treatment regimen
The COVID-19 Team Leader at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Dr. Yunusa Thairu, has given a rare insight into the treatment regimen for the COVID-19, explaining how a cocktail of an anti-retroviral drug, Aluvia, as well as Zinc and Vitamin C tablets are deployed. Dr. Thairu disclosed this on Monday, while answering questions after the official opening of the 506-bed space COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment Centre in Idu, Abuja. According to him, the regimen was adopted at a meeting with the World Health Organisation, WHO, and the United Nations, UN, alongside with some other unnamed stakeholders. The meeting, according to him, resolved to use Chloroquine or Aluvia which is a combination of antiviral therapy and other management techniques that can be used to make COVID-19 patients ...
