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| APPROVAL: Acting director general of Health Patrick Amoth address the press on coronavirus update at Afya House |
Kenya has been cleared to take part in the trials of a Covid-19 drug
approved for use in the US.
The Ministry of Health will use the drug on a small number of patients.
Remdesivir was approved by the Food and Drug Authority in the US for emergency
use.
Health director general Patrick Amoth on Monday said the World Health
Organization had approved Kenya to join the trials.
“The compounds we are going to deploy of course will depend on how available
they are in terms of compassionate use of the different drugs and protocols and
the clinical presentation of our cases,” Amoth said.
The majority of cases in the country have a mild form of the virus.
The DG said there is a wide range of compounds such as antivirals,
antiretrovirals and antimalarials drugs that will be deployed to see what works
best in the Kenyan scenario.
“So, if we are to go for very expensive compounds which we could be able
to apply for a very small segment of the population then we will have to make
that judgment based on the numbers,” Amoth said.
Data from a study showed that remdesivir had a clear-cut and significant
positive effect in diminishing the time of recovery from Covid-19.
Remdesivir was found to have shortened the time of recovery by 31 per
cent, an average of about four days less.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the country rose to 490 on Monday after
25 new cases were recorded. The 25 were from 1,012 samples tested.
The total number of tests conducted since the first case is now 24,792.
Six more people were discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of
patients who have successfully undergone treatment to 173.
“This is not however to point out that we now have a cure because when
you look at the time frame, it is only 15 days for those who received normal
treatment versus 11 days for those who received the drug,” Amoth said.
“So this is not a silver bullet, although it has been approved but the
other shortcoming of this medication is that it can only be given as an
infusion through an injection so there is no oral formulation and it is also
relatively expensive.”
Amoth said since most of the cases recorded in the country are mild or
asymptomatic, the drug will be administered in small portions.
Amoth said even though the drug has shown to have positive results among
patients, it shouldn’t be taken as a cure for Covid-19.
The study was conducted on 1,063 patients. “This was a good trial
because the case load was good and the primary end point was the recovery in terms
of either stoppage of usage of the ventilator oxygen for critically ill
patients or the time for discharge,” he said.
From the study, those given the drug were able to leave the hospital in
11 days compared to 15 days.
Out of the 25 new cases, 15 are from Nairobi while 10 are from Mombasa.
"To stop the infections, each and every one of us must take
precaution and religiously practice the containment measures that we have
consistently advocated,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said. – The Star
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