WHO begins drug trials to combat COVID-19 as global death toll crosses 27k

The World Health Organization has enrolled patients from Norway and Spain for the “historic” potential drug trial to combat the deadly COVID-19 infection, the officials announced on March 27. The four prominent drugs being tested are malaria medications chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, an antiviral compound called Remdesivir, a combination of HIV drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir and a combination of those drugs plus interferon-beta, WHO confirmed. 

Speaking at a Press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there are were half a million more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than recorded and more than 20,000 deaths. Those numbers are tragic, he was quoted saying. 

Further, he said that the WHO was delighted to announce the first set of patients who will shortly be enrolled for the Solidarity trial, those of whom, will help depict the safety and effectiveness of these drug combinations. This will be a historic trial that will dramatically cut the time needed to generate robust evidence about what drugs work, Tedros told the press conference. Over 45 countries are contributing to the trial and more have expressed interest, he added. Tedros further added saying that the more countries that join the trial, the faster the organization will have results. 

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Trump insisted other drug options

According to US media reports, President Donald Trump had incessantly proclaimed some potential treatments from the drugs, the researchers, however, had revealed that there was insufficient study and abundant trials were needed to establish the drug's effectiveness. Medical researchers were also considered selective HIV drugs as possible treatments of the COVID-19. In fact, a French daily claimed that the drug Chloroquine, and its derivative hydroxychloroquine, was found in some previous research in France and could prove helpful in battling the deluge of coronavirus cases. There were, however, no proven therapies as of yet to combat the disease, researcher and medic Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit claimed. 

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