WHO tests 3 drugs for Covid; deaths hit 4.31M

Source: The Manila Times | Original Published At: 2021-08-12 16:20:56 UTC

Key Points

• WHO initiates trials for three new Covid-19 drugs: artesunate, imatinib, and infliximab.
• Drugs selected for potential to reduce mortality in hospitalized patients.
• Global collaboration across 52 countries and 600+ hospitals.
• WHO acknowledges limited efficacy of previously tested drugs.
• Global death toll exceeds 4.31 million as of August 2021.
• BRICS countries and others oppose politicization of origin-tracing efforts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) announced it will test three new drugs for Covid-19, which will involve thousands of researchers at more than 600 hospitals in 52 countries.

According to a press release issued by WHO on Wednesday, the three new drugs are artesunate, a treatment for severe malaria; imatinib, a drug for certain cancers; and infliximab, a treatment for immune system disorders such as Crohn’s Disease.

These therapies were selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in hospitalized Covid-19 patients and they were donated for the trial by their manufacturers, WHO said.

“Finding more effective and accessible therapeutics for Covid-19 patients remains a critical need, and WHO is proud to lead this global effort,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

In its previous efforts, WHO has tested four drugs namely, remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon, and the initial results showed that they had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with Covid-19.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,314,196 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an Agence France-Presse compilation of official data on Thursday.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 618,137 deaths, followed by Brazil with 564,773, India with 429,179, Mexico with 245,476 and Peru with 197,102.

In related news, experts and officials from various countries have strongly opposed politicizing the Covid-19 origin-tracing, calling for impartial scientific investigations into the origin in multiple territories.

At a press conference following the meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that politicians “shouldn’t strive to score points and increase their popularity by speculating about the Covid-19 situation.”

The investigation led by the US intelligence community into Covid-19’s origins has a clear end-goal of diverting attention from the country’s pandemic response failures and casting blame on China, said Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council.

For his part, Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo said any politicization of Covid-19 origin-tracing should be resisted. “Let’s try and find out why it happened and how it happened, but it should be based on evidence. We shouldn’t play politics with health,” he said.

Meanwhile, researchers and observers have noted that origin-tracing studies should be conducted in multiple countries as credible reports raised by experts of different countries point to Covid-19 incidences in their territories earlier than the end of 2019.