Malaysia looking into new medicine, method to treat Covid-19

CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry (MOH) is looking into new medicine and treatment methods to cure Covid-19 patients, according to the Health director-general.

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said these include medication used by China to treat its Covid-19 patients, and a method used by the health authority there involving blood plasma from a cured patient to treat new patients.

All this was discussed by the MOH with their counterpart in China through a teleconference arranged by the foreign affairs minister earlier today.

"We were looking at learning new things, either the usage of new types of medicine, or use of blood. Including new medicine from China, and Avigan from Japan.

"But we were informed that there are side effects to these medicines. Even though they are not registered in Malaysia, we can approve them to be used here, but we still have to study its side effects," he told reporters in Putrajaya today.

Noor Hisham said among the examples of side effects from these medicines are diarrhoea and rashes.

They also need to look at other possible complications, including whether the medicines are going to be toxic to the kidneys.

"There are many complications that can arise from new medicines if we do not study them properly.

"Instead of treating patients, they could be harming them. So we have to look into this."

On the usage of blood plasma, Noor Hisham (below) said the method requires a special machine, where plasma from a cured patient's blood is reused.

The method would need a special machine to thicken the antibody, among others.

"However, we still do not know if this method really works or not. So now we will listen to their experience first because they have done it."

China had been experimenting with plasma infusions to treat its Covid-19 patients in hospital.

Reuters reported last month, quoting the head of a hospital in Wuhan saying that plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said MOH recently had a meeting with the World Health Organisation (WHO), where the latter had made a visit to Malaysia to see how the country is doing in facing the virus outbreak.

According to him, WHO had expressed their satisfaction on how the country had been handling Covid-19.

"They have came here and saw our preparation, and they are satisfied," he said.

Among the method that was mentioned by Noor Hisham was the government's Movement Control Order and active case detection. - Mkini