- Remdesivir was found to shorten the time to recovery by about four days
- The drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Authority for emergency use.
Image: MERCY MUMO
Kenya has been cleared to take part in the trials of a Covid-19 drug approved for use in the US.
The Ministry of Health will use the drug on a small number of patients. Remdesivir was approved by the Food and Drug Authority in the US for emergency use.
Health director general Patrick Amoth on Monday said the World Health Organization had approved Kenya to join the trials.
“The compounds we are going to deploy of course will depend on how available they are in terms of compassionate use of the different drugs and protocols and the clinical presentation of our cases,” Amoth said.
The majority of cases in the country have a mild form of the virus.
The DG said there is a wide range of compounds such as antivirals, antiretrovirals and antimalarials drugs that will be deployed to see what works best in the Kenyan scenario.
“So, if we are to go for very expensive compounds which we could be able to apply for a very small segment of the population then we will have to make that judgment based on the numbers,” Amoth said.
Data from a study showed that remdesivir had a clear-cut and significant positive effect in diminishing the time of recovery from Covid-19.
Remdesivir was found to have shortened the time of recovery by 31 per cent, an average of about four days less.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the country rose to 490 on Monday after 25 new cases were recorded. The 25 were from 1,012 samples tested.
The total number of tests conducted since the first case is now 24,792. Six more people were discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of patients who have successfully undergone treatment to 173.
“This is not however to point out that we now have a cure because when you look at the time frame, it is only 15 days for those who received normal treatment versus 11 days for those who received the drug,” Amoth said.
“So this is not a silver bullet, although it has been approved but the other shortcoming of this medication is that it can only be given as an infusion through an injection so there is no oral formulation and it is also relatively expensive.”
Amoth said since most of the cases recorded in the country are mild or asymptomatic, the drug will be administered in small portions.
Amoth said even though the drug has shown to have positive results among patients, it shouldn’t be taken as a cure for Covid-19.
The study was conducted on 1,063 patients.“This was a good trial because the case load was good and the primary end point was the recovery in terms of either stoppage of usage of the ventilator oxygen for critically ill patients or the time for discharge,” he said.
From the study, those given the drug were able to leave the hospital in 11 days compared to 15 days.
Out of the 25 new cases, 15 are from Nairobi while 10 are from Mombasa.
"To stop the infections, each and every one of us must take precaution and religiously practice the containment measures that we have consistently advocated,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said.
Edited by Henry Makori