The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Tuesday, declared that chloroquine prevents the dreaded coronavirus.
Its Director-General, Prof. Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye, during an online interactive session with journalists, said: “We realise that chloroquine can be used in the early stage of the COVID-19 infection as prophylactic treatment. Science does not lie.”
The pharmacist further explained: “On March 20, 2020, during a press briefing, I said I was going through literature and I found (out) that chloroquine and remdesivir killed COVID-19 in vitro – that is in the laboratory. In early March, there was a publication where 100 patients were treated with chloroquine in 10 hospitals across Chinese cities. I made a statement that chloroquine is only for clinical trial treatment. There has to be a level of confidence that depends on the number of subjects and results.”
She went on: “We did not know that the disease has four stages that include pre-exposure, early-stage, severe stage, and post-infection. At what stage that chloroquine will be more effective, we did not know at that time.
“We are now understanding that it is not one drug that can be effective for COVID-19. It depends on the phase of the disease. We started working with Lagos State on a clinical trial for chloroquine. We are getting to know that it is working.
