Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director-General (DG) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday issued a new set of guidelines for the treatment of the rampaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients in isolation centres across the country. He made the disclosure at a Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja.
The DG said the decision to stop the administration of antiviral drugs on COVID-19 patients was brought on by latest research on case management. He said, “We have removed the use of antivirals from our treatment guidelines.” This he said was informed y the fact that the trials for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine would still go on.
“We reached out to some antiviral drugs. One that was in our guidelines recently was the lopinavir/ritonavir combination, which is a combination of medicines we use for HIV. So, we look for whatever we have to try. As evidence emerges and science improves, then we have to start making hard choices. There have been quite a number of studies now that have shown that they do not really improve the outcome of this illness, so we have withdrawn them from the guidelines of management.”
