An African study to identify COVID 19 treatment for mild and moderate cases of the pandemic has been launched.
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), an international non-profit drug research and development (R&D), revealed that the investigation will be carried out at 19 sites in 13 countries.
An African study to identify COVID 19 treatment for mild and moderate cases of the pandemic has been launched. Africa has reported about 2.1 million cases and more than 50,000 deaths. Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), an international non-profit drug research and development (R&D), revealed that the investigation will be carried out at 19 sites in 13 countries. ANTICOV consortium which is part of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) solidarity trial, one of the largest international randomised trials will be carrying out the investigation. ANTICOV is an adaptive platform trial, that allows for several treatments to be simultaneously tested and enables fast decisions based on ongoing analysis of results.
Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out that Africa needed large clinical trials for Covid-19 to answer research questions that are specific to an African context. Welcoming the ANTICOV trial led by African doctors he felt that the continent should prepare for future waves of the disease taking into consideration Africa’s limited health infrastructure. The objective of the study is to identify treatments that can prevent progression of coronavirus to severe cases and also limit transmission. It will check the efficacy of treatments in mild-to-moderate patients in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sudan, and Uganda.The trial will be started with the HIV antiretroviral combination lopinavir/ritonavir and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been commonly used for Covid-19 traetment in many African countries.
