Until we have data WHO based warning on, we won’t stop use of chloroquine for covid-19 treatment NAFDAC

The use of Hydroxychloroquine as clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19 patients will continue in Nigeria despite the suspension of the drug by the World Health Organization (WHO), so says National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC).

This was made known on Tuesday by the Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, during an interview with Channels TV where she alluded that she was not aware of the data WHO used in coming up with the suspension of the drug as treatment for COVID-19.

According to Professor Adeyeye, Nigeria will still continue the clinical trial of the drug despite a warning by WHO that more people are dying from the use of hydroxychloroquine to combat COVID-19.

She said; “I do not know the data that they are looking at, whether it is from the Caucasian population or from the African population. I know that the clinical trial treatment is about to start or have started a few days ago in Lagos.

“When you do clinical trial treatment, there are many factors that can affect the clinical outcome. The way drug is handled even from children from the same mother may be different, not to talk of populations.

“So if the data they are looking at and the reason for suspending the trials is because it is from a Caucasian population, then it may be justified. I don’t think we have data from the African population yet because our genetic makeup is different.

“You can take for example drugs used for Hypertension. There are some drugs that would work for the African American or African population that will not work for the Caucasian population.

“When you are doing Science experiment or clinical trial, you wait for data. Once we start getting our own data in Africa, then we can go one way or the other,” Professor Adeyeye added.