To better position them against COVID-19 coronavirus disease, countries in West Africa will soon share 740,000 doses of Chloroquine and Azithromycin.
The drugs are the major components of a list of items totalling one million that have been ordered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for member states to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“To address the emergency at hand, ECOWAS has immediately made available financial support from its own resources, in addition to assistance from international partners, for the purchase of medical supplies and equipment essential for the fight against the pandemic,” ECOWAS said in a statement.
The regional health organization for West Africa, the West African Health Organization (WAHO) it has has already purchased and dispatched medicines and other required materials for the management of the coronavirus in the region to the 15 Member States.
Items that have been distributed so far include 30,500 diagnostic test kits; 10,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 740,000 prescription tablets (Chloroquine and Azithromycin).
“Orders have been placed to acquire for Member States, the following items: 240,000 diagnostic kits; 240,000 extraction kits; 250,000 viral sample transport equipment; 285,100 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); 268,100 masks for medical personnel, 120 ventilators and several thousand litres of alcohol gel and disinfectants,” WAHO stated.
Specifically, the organisation said it is also working in close collaboration with the specialised services in Member States, to deploy personnel and epidemiological surveillance and data collection tools, strengthen the capacity of reference laboratories and train technical personnel.
Chloroquine’s reemergence
Previously banned, chloroquine is having a comeback as one of the popularly mentioned drugs for the treatment of COVID-19.
Although the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), the body in charge of licensing medicines in America, has granted “emergency use” authorisation for these drugs in the treatment of Covid-19 for a limited number of hospitalised cases, it does not mean the FDA is saying they definitely work. But it does mean that in specific circumstances, hospitals can request and use the medicines from government stockpiles for use in COVID-19 treatment.
In Nigeria, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has ordered manufacturing of chloroquine for emergency stock for possible clinical trial treatment of coronavirus disease. In a statement, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, said chloroquine, an old antimalarial is being repurposed for the clinical trial treatment of Coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
Chloroquine was discontinued in Nigeria many years ago for use as antimalarial because of the resistance that the parasite developed against the drug, suggesting that the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient, chloroquine phosphate, could be difficult.
“About four weeks ago, I approached a local manufacturing company (May and Baker), a member of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (PMGMAN), whose flagship product in the past was chloroquine to make a batch of the drug for emergency stock. The company had NAFDAC approval for the production of the drug as antimalarial many years ago before the discontinuation. The company was asked to manufacture a batch for emergency stock just in case more people become exposed and infected with the virus. The batch has been manufactured and the company plans to make more batches if needed,” the DG said.
