“Nobody should buy Chloroquine and use. If you have COVID-19, go to a doctor. We have warned Nigerians and shall do that again. Do not take Chloroquine,” Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC’s Director General, told our reporter on Thursday in Abuja.

“The delay in approving some of the drugs for treatment of the virus is because of the clinical trials the agency is carrying out on them.

“So far, no group or individual has proffered any solution to the treatment or management of the pandemic,” she said.

According to Adeyeye, the Chinese government carried out lots of trials on Chloroquine before it approved its use for treatment on some COVID-19 patients.

”Clinical trial is not a thing one can handle casually; it requires guidance, supervision and experiment before approval so that it will not cause further damage.

“The trial is to determine whether it is actually working or not, after a sustained observation. NAFDAC is supposed to be the centre of the regulation of clinical trial effects.

“Nobody can do any job of clinical trial in the clinic or anywhere without passing through NAFDAC protocol.

”If such protocol is found defective or tend to compromise the health of Nigerians, we will not approve it,’’ she said.

The NAFDAC boss further said that whatever procedure was coming up for the cure or curtailment of COVID-19 must be submitted for trial to the agency for appropriate processing.

She said that the agency must also ensure that all the procedure used in arriving at their experimental processes for the cure or curtailment of COVID-19 must be submitted with relevant proof.

Adeyeye advised researchers and traditional medical practitioners to follow the normal protocol before the approval of their work for public consumption.

The post COVID-19: NAFDAC warns against use of Chloroquine appeared first on NEWSVERGE.

The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said in a statement on Friday that the clinical trial was necessary in view of the fast-spreading information that chloroquine could be effective in preventing and managing COVID-19.

Abayomi, however, said that the drug had not been ascertained as an effective treatment of Coronavirus disease, as the state was still watching the global research space to clearly define the efficiency of the drug in the control of the disease.

”We do not have any hard evidence that chloroquine is effective in preventing or managing COVID-19. We are watching the global research space to clearly define its efficiency in COVID-19,” he said.

Abayomi said that chloroquine had significant side effects, hence, it should not be used without medical supervision, as it might cause more harm than good.

He urged citizens to seek the advice of a physician and await the directive of the Ministry of Health on the use of the drug.

The commissioner urged the public not to panic, but adhere to instructions of the government, as the present administration was committed to fighting the spread of the virus.

Abayomi appealed to citizens not to take advantage of the present situation on COVID-19 to hike or hoard domestic consumables and enrich themselves.

According to him, members of the public should continue to be their brothers’ keepers and join hands with the government to curtail the pandemic.

“It is condemnable to use this situation to enrich yourselves by hoarding or hiking the prices of domestic consumables for profiteering. We should be responsible citizens in the quest to make Lagos disease-free,” he said.

The post COVID-19: LASG says chloroquine drug to undergo clinical trial appeared first on NEWSVERGE.