On Mar 27, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia was among several countries selected by WHO to carry out clinical trials on the use of the novel antiviral medicine, Remdesivir, on Covid-19 patients.
Remdesivir is a novel antiviral drug used as in treatment for Ebola and Marburg virus infections.
Dr Noor Hisham said the focus will be on patients at Sungai Buloh Hospital and other hospitals identified as “Covid-19 hospitals”, and the ministry will monitor the side effects caused, and effectiveness of the medicine.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said a special committee was set up to carry out audits on fatalities due to Covid-19.
The establishment of a special committee; known as the National Covid-19 Mortality Review Committee was decided after a meeting by the National Crisis Preparedness Response Centre (CPRC) yesterday. The committee will be headed by former deputy Health director-general (research and technical support) Datuk Dr Christopher Lee.
“Through this committee, all information on management and treatment given to Covid-19 patients that died will be examined by the specialists.
“It was hoped that the result analysis could help with the management of Covid-19 patients,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr N Ganabaskaran said it was a great honour bestowed on Malaysia by the world’s highest health body.
“It reflects and speaks of the efficiency and reliability of our Malaysian health personnel as well as our scientists on whom we place great trust.
“We wish all those who are involved in this exercise the very best and hope the tests will be a great success as we are all looking forward to more good news,” he said when contacted.
The number of positive cases keeps increasing, the sooner a cure is found, the better. Hence, we hope this clinical trial will us bring good news.