Benefits and dangers of steam inhalation therapy | THE INDEPENDENT | As Uganda battles a brutal second wave of the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there is still no effective antiviral treatment for the infection. Instead, non-pharmaceutical preventive interventions remain …
Read More »Trump renews defense of using hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus
Washington, US | XINHUA | U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday renewed his defense of using anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, despite medical evidence disproving its effectiveness. “It’s safe. It doesn’t cause problems. I had no problem. I had absolutely no problem,” Trump said during a press briefing at the …
Read More »Uganda halts use of hdyroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda has halted the use of hydroxychloroquine as studies to determine the drug’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19 are ongoing. The drug has been used to treat some positive cases of the disease at some treatment facilities like Entebbe General Hospital. It was used in combination …
Read More »White House presses FDA to reconsider controversial hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment
Washington, US | XINHUA | The White House is urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reinstate its emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug touted by U.S. President Donald Trump to combat COVID-19, media reported. Weeks ago, the FDA revoked the EUA that allowed for hydroxychloroquine …
Read More »WHO eyes hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses before 2021
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization said Thursday that a few hundred million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be produced by the end of the year — and be targeted at those most vulnerable to the virus. The UN health agency said it was working on that assumption, with …
Read More »US ends emergency authorization of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19
Washington, United States | AFP | The United States on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for two antimalarial drugs favored by President Donald Trump to treat the new coronavirus, effectively shutting the door on the politically charged treatments. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ) were authorized in March after they were found …
Read More »Brazil threatens to quit WHO, Trump says US beating pandemic
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of the WHO over “ideological bias,” as his counterpart Donald Trump said the US economy was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic while Europe slowly reopens its borders. From Africa to Europe to Asia, governments are …
Read More »‘No benefit’ from hydroxychloroquine for virus: UK trial
Paris, France | AFP | A major British trial of hydroxychloroquine has found it has “no benefit” for patients hospitalised with the coronavirus, researchers said Friday, announcing they had stopped tests of the drug. “We have concluded that there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19,” said a statement from the …
Read More »WHO to resume hydroxychloroquine coronavirus trials
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization announced Wednesday that clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine will resume as it searches for potential coronavirus treatments. On May 25, the WHO announced it had temporarily suspended the trials to conduct a safety review, which has now concluded there is “no reason” to change the …
Read More »Hydroxychloroquine: a drug dividing the world
Paris, France | AFP | Banned in some countries, promoted in others — the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the new coronavirus is dividing opinion worldwide. Scientists looking to find licenced medicines that could be repurposed as a treatment for COVID-19 had started tests of hydroxychloroquine, normally used to …
Read More »