MINISTER of Health, Osagie Ehanire on Friday said the would wait for the recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as cure for the pandemic coronavirus, rather than adopting chloroquine that is purported to be the cure for the virus.
“We no longer use chloroquine in Nigeria. We look at what the World Health Organisation recommends and the scientists here, what their recommendation is,” Ehanire said during a press conference called to give update on the pandemic in the country.
“And so far, there are things that have been said about chloroquine, that it was active in In-Vitro test and not proven to have been active In- Vivo test.
“The situation might change, and that is the information we have so far. We may not necessarily look at that but we are not ignoring either the possibility or option,” he added.
He stated that the Federal Government might consider some elements of the drug, noting that its functionality is limited to external germs on the body rather than to cure the disease from within the body system.
The Minister reiterated that the WHO was yet to make a valid position on the drug as a cure to the pandemic.
According to his explanation, in-vitro, is a test on the surface of the human body, while invivo is a test carried out inside of the human body with the germs within inherent.
He said the use of chloroquine with an In-Vitro test appears to have had a positive outcome while the In-Vivo has not been proven to be active.
Ehanire however, noted that Nigeria has so far not witnessed any case that required the use of chloroquine or any other form of medication.
“As for hydroxychloroquine, we don’t generally use that for that purpose except for some immune situation,” he said.
The Federal Government stance on the use of chloroquine as cure for coronavirus came on the heels of the recent development in the United State (US) approving the use of the chloroquine to combat the spread of COVID-19.
The US President, Donald Trump on Thursday had approved the anti-malaria drug chloroquine for use as a treatment against coronavirus.
He stated that the drugs would be made available for prescription as successive inquiries on chloroquine had proven as effective to cure the coronavirus pandemic.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was working with the government and academic entities to investigate the holistic effectiveness of chloroquine in treating patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 to potentially reduce the duration of symptoms, as well as viral shedding, which can help prevent the spread of disease.