Experts dismiss Covid-19 pandemic ‘cure’ in US
Kenyan experts have dismissed claims by a US-based Nigerian doctor that a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, zinc and zithromax is a cure for coronavirus disease.
Acting Director General of Health Dr Patrick Amoth said there is no scientific proof to that effect and urged Kenyan doctors to treat their patients using known drugs approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
During the daily briefing at Afya House Dr Amoth said despite assertions by some doctors particularly in the US that hydroxychloroquine was effective in the treatment of Covid, there is no scientific data to prove it.
“Use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19 was not based on any known science or research.
Please let us follow the protocols set by WHO for now and forever,” Dr Amoth said.
Abnormal heart rythms
The controversy took the world by storm with social media Twitter penalising Donald Trump Jr for sharing what it deemed misinformation on the drug.
Twitter said it ordered the president’s son to delete the misleading tweet and said it would “limit some account functionality for 12 hours”.
The US President wasn’t spared either, he had shared the video multiple times, with the social media giant deleting some of his tweets on the drug.
Dr Amoth, during the briefing, went further and warned that hydroxychloroquine causes abnormal heart rate rhythms.
He was responding to a question over claims by Dr Stella Immanuel, a physician based in Houston, Texas, that she had successfully treated more than 350 Covid-19 patients using hydroxychloroquine.
Through a video that was widely shared on social media, Dr Immanuel said she also used the drug to treat malaria patients in Nigeria.
While standing with others, she claimed were doctors, Dr Immanuel said no one needs to die because there is a cure.
“I’m here because I have personally treated over 350 patients with Covid. Patients that have diabetes, patients that have high blood pressure, patients that have asthma, old people,” she said.
“I think my oldest patient is 92 … 87-year-olds. And the result has been the same. I put them on hydroxychloroquine, I put them on zinc, I put them on Zithromax, and they’re all well,” she said.
Adding: “All of you doctors that are waiting for data, if six months down the line you actually found out that this data shows that this medication works, how about your patients that have died?” she said.
“We don’t need to die. There is a cure for Covid-19.”
However, the video came under scrutiny as many questioned their credentials and the fact that none of the ‘doctors’ had masks.
Hours after the video had gone viral, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube removed it.
The video circulated by Breitbart News, featured a group of people wearing white laboratory coats calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” holding a press conference outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC.
