Covid-19: Patient In Sg Buloh Hospital First In SEA To Be Treated With Remdesivir
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A Covid-19 patient currently admitted at Sungai Buloh Hospital will be the first person in Southeast Asia to be treated with the experimental drug Remdesivir.
According to Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the Health Ministry has started recruiting active cases for Remdesivir clinical trials at hospitals across the country. These trials will be under the World Health Organisation (WHO) and involve 100 patients.
We have received the drug and distributed it to nine hospitals. We have also recruited one case for the clinical trial, and we aim at getting 100 patients.
Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah via NST
Remdesivir was initially developed as a treatment option for Ebola. Although it failed at doing that, studies showed that the drug was safe for humans.
Clinical trials for the treatment of Covid-19 using Remdesivir have already begun in other countries. In some cases, the drug has been seen to improve patients’ outcomes, especially when given earlier in the course of infection.
Dr Noor Hisham explained that the clinical trials being done here will probably take about six months before reports can be completed and submitted to WHO.
WHO will then look into all the reports from (clinical trials done) around the world, including Malaysia, and study them according to their protocols.
Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah via NST
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