COVID-19: Solidarity Trial to Compare Drugs Combination Starts in Two Countries – WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there are now more than half a million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 23,495 deaths.
However, WHO expressed delight to announce that in Norway and Spain, the first patients will shortly be enrolled in the Solidarity Trial.
The trial will compare the safety and effectiveness of four different drugs or drug combinations against COVID-19, WHO revealed.
In a media briefing monitored by MarketForces, WHO said these are tragic numbers, but stated that more than 100,000 people have recovered around the world.
Speaking on about the developments, WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: I’ve said before that crises like this bring out the best and worst in humanity.
“We have recently seen an increase in scams, cyber-attacks and impersonation using WHO, my name and COVID-19”, WHO’s Adhanom stated.
“I had the honour of addressing an extraordinary meeting of leaders from the G20 countries. My message was threefold: we must fight, unite and ignite”, he said.
Adhanom reiterated the need to fight to stop the virus with every resource at disposal; Unite to confront the pandemic together.
“We are one humanity, with one, common enemy. No country can fight alone; we can only fight together.
“And ignite the industrial might and innovation of the G20 to produce and distribute the tools needed to save lives.
“We must also make a promise to future generations, saying never again”, he added.
The DG said viral outbreaks are a fact of life. How much damage they do is something we can influence.
The DG also thanked the G20 countries for their commitment to fight the pandemic, safeguard the global economy, address international trade disruptions and enhance global cooperation.
“This is especially important for countries who are not part of the G20 but will be affected by decisions made by G20 countries”, Adhanom added.
WHO said it held a briefing with around 50 Ministers of Health from around the world at which China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore shared their experiences and the lessons they have learned.
Several common themes emerged about what has worked. These include the need for early detection and isolation of confirmed cases; identification, follow-up and quarantine of contacts.
WHO emphasises the need to optimize care, communicate to build trust and engage communities in the fight.
It stated that countries also expressed several common challenges.
WHO said the chronic global shortage of personal protective equipment is now one of the most urgent threats to our collective ability to save lives.
The health organisation said it has shipped almost 2 million individual items of protective gear to 74 countries that need it most.
“We’re preparing to send a similar amount to a further 60 countries”, it added.
Speaking further, the DG said this problem can only be solved with international cooperation and international solidarity.
“When health workers are at risk, we’re all at risk”, he added.
He said health workers in low- and middle-income countries deserve the same protection as those in the wealthiest countries.
“To support our call on all countries to conduct aggressive case-finding and testing, we’re also working urgently to massively increase the production and capacity for testing around the world.
“One of the most important areas of international cooperation is research and development.
“A vaccine is still at least 12 to 18 months away”, WHO DG stated.
He said in the meantime, WHO recognizes that there is an urgent need for therapeutics to treat patients and save lives.
“Today we are delighted to announce that in Norway and Spain, the first patients will shortly be enrolled in the Solidarity Trial.
“This will compare the safety and effectiveness of four different drugs or drug combinations against COVID-19.
Adhanom said this is a historic trial which will dramatically cut the time needed to generate robust evidence about what drugs work.
“More than 45 countries are contributing to the trial, and more have expressed interest. The more countries who join the trial, the faster we will have results.
“In the meantime, we call on individuals and countries to refrain from using therapeutics that have not been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19.
“The history of medicine is strewn with examples of drugs that worked on paper, or in a test tube, but didn’t work in humans or were actually harmful.
“During the most recent Ebola epidemic, for example, some medicines that were thought to be effective were found not to be as effective as other medicines when they were compared during a clinical trial.
“We must follow the evidence. There are no short-cuts”, WHO stated.
The DG said there is also need to ensure that using unproven drugs does not create a shortage of those medicines to treat diseases for which they have proven effective.
He said as the pandemic evolves and more countries are affected, we are learning more and more lessons about what works and what doesn’t.
“The World Health Organisation is continuing to support all countries in the response.
“We’ve published more than 40 guidance documents on our website, providing detailed, evidence-based recommendations for governments, hospitals, health workers, members of the public and more.
“More than 1 million health workers have been trained through our courses on OpenWHO.org. We will continue to train more.
“We’re also delighted to report that the COVID-19 Solidarity Fund has now received donations of more than US$ 108 million in just two weeks, from 203,000 individuals and organizations.
“The English version of our WhatsApp Health Alert now has more than 12 million users globally, and the Arabic, French and Spanish versions were launched today”, WHO Chief stated.
According to him, more languages will be added, including Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Kurdish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Urdu, Swahili and more.
WHO DG however lament the increase in scams, cyber-attacks and impersonation.
“I’ve said before that crises like this bring out the best and worst in humanity.
“We have recently seen an increase in scams, cyber-attacks and impersonation using WHO, my name and COVID-19”, he stated.
Adhanom said: “I’d like to end with something Singapore’s Minister of Health, Gan Kim Yong, said during today’s briefing.
“We are only at the beginning of this fight. We need to stay calm, stay united and work together”.
COVID-19: Solidarity Trial to Compare Drugs Combination Starts in Two Countries – WHO
