#COVID19: NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu Reveals Drugs Not Relevant For #COVID19 Treatment

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has removed antiviral drugs from its new set of guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19.

NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed this at a Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday.

According to him, the decision to stop the use of antiviral drugs on Coronavirus patients was as a result of the latest research on case management.

“We have removed the use of antivirals from our treatment guidelines.

“One that was in our guidelines recently was the lopinavir/ritonavir combination, which is a combination of medicines we use for HIV.

“There have been quite a number of studies now that have shown that they don’t really improve the outcome of this illness, so we’ve withdrawn them from the guidelines of management.”

Last month, the Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, revealed that the four drugs that will be monitored in the COVID-19 solidarity trial are Remdesivir; Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine; Lopinavir, and Ritonavir.