Nigeria has joined more than 100 other countries to take part in the World Health Organisation (WHO) “solidarity trial treatment” for COVID-19.
This development is part of the efforts of the international health organisation’s effective treatment regimen and vaccine to combat coronavirus in the shortest possible time.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who announced this on Monday at the briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, said, the Federal Government is cooperating with the WHO on the solidarity trial treatment with Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano and FCT enrolled.
He, however, did not state when the trial will commence and the modalities for it.
It was gathered that more than 1,200 patients have been randomly selected from the five countries to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the drug combination.
”The solidarity trial will compare for treatment options against standard of care to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19”. According to the agency.
The Solidarity Trial,by enrolling patients in multiple countries, aims to rapidly discover whether any of the drugs slow disease progression or improve survival. Other drugs can be added based on emerging evidence.
The international health body added that “As of April 21 2020, over 100 countries are working together to find effective therapeutics as soon as possible, via the trial.
“Until there is sufficient evidence, WHO cautions against physicians and medical associations recommending or administering these unproven treatments to patients with COVID-19 or people self-medicating with them.”
According to the Minister, Nigeria has conducted 27,078 COVID-19 tests with 4,399 cases in 34 states and the FCT giving the ratio of infection as 70 per cent for men to 30 per cent for women.
“Kogi and Cross River States have not reported any cases, but we are optimistic that we can work with the State Health Ministry to validate this in due course, when we engage the state authorities.
“A team from the Ministry of Health, made up of experts from various specialties, including the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), is on standby to proceed to Calabar as soon as travel arrangements can be made, taking with them, resource to support the health system.
“Senior management of the Federal Ministry of Health and clinical case managers in our hospitals, this morning participated in a multinational teleconference with Chinese medical and academic experts in Beijing, where much insight was gained into the treatment strategy of China and other matters of common interest were discussed. The learnings from this intervention are invaluable in reexamining our methods.
“It is important that our response to COVID-19 be a concerted national, collaborative drive, to stand a better chance of being effective. So far, our efforts are yielding result as shown in states where panic and scare were initially rife, but now subsumed.” Dr. Ehanire said.
Explaining that the 260 ThisDay Dome treatment and isolation bed facility for COVID -19, situated in the Central Business District, Abuja, is ready for use and will be commissioned on Tuesday, the minister said;
“The ThisDay Dome treatment center, a project of the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) is complete and ready for commissioning tomorrow. The Hon. Minister of FCT will participate in the event.
“This center is fully self-contained, coming with a PCR Laboratory, a fully equipped ICU and an incinerator. This over 260 bed facility adds tremendous boost to the FCT capacity and capabilities.
