WSU JOINS WHO IN THE COVID-19 FIGHT

In the global initiative to fight COVID-19, WSU has joined hands with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the Solidarity Trial in search of a COVID-19 treatment.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the new corona virus called SARS-CoV-2. WHO learned of this new virus on 31 December 2019, following a report of a cluster of cases of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China.

Rated among the top 8 medical faculties in the world for Problem-based Community Learning, the World Health Organisation had proclaimed the WSU Health Sciences Faculty as having “set a benchmark for universities across the world.”

WSU Internal Medicine & Pharmacology head of department and Principal Researcher, Professor Thozama Dubula said a team has been working tirelessly for a breakthrough, but unfortunately there have not been any substantive results as yet.

“Some of the drugs that have been tested so far include hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug; lopinavir, which is used as a combination drug in the treatment of HIV infection and remdesivir that is used in the treatment of the Ebola virus; amongst other drugs tested. Unfortunately, none of these drugs have proven to be effective in the treatment of severe COVID-19,” Dubula said.

Dubula further added that the advantage of such studies is that they have been able to answer adequately the question of whether these drugs should be repurposed for use in severe COVID-19 infection.

Even though the two parties have not yet found a breakthrough in their test, they still have a lot drugs in the pipeline to test as there are currently talks of an impending third wave of COVID-19 infections in the country.

WHO was founded when their constitution came into force on 7 April, 1948. There are now more than 7000 people working in 150 countries, with six regional offices and headquarters in Geneva and Switzerland.

WHO’s primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations’ system.

Scientists say severity of the third wave is still not known, it will depend on future COVID-19 variants.

-Anita Roji