IVERMECTIN DRUG TRIALS HALTED BY RAVAGING PANDEMIC

By KETRA KALUNGA THE commencement of trials for the Ivermectin drug to be used as a vaccine for treatment and prevention of Covid-19 has been halted because the government needed to deal with the emergency to approve the vaccine for the pandemic ravaging the country, the Ministry of Health has said. The Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority ZAMRA in February this year allowed the ministry to conduct clinical trials to study the efficacy of the veterinary anti-parasitic drug which is already undergoing studies in neighbouring Zimbabwe and other countries. Ministry of Health spokesperson, Abel Kabalo said the team that was tasked to commence the trials on the Ivermectin drug has not made much progress apart from ascertaining the cost of ethical approvals of the trials. Dr. Kabalo said in an interview that the ministry had shifted its attention to the emergency approval of the usage of the vaccines in a bid to prevent people from the ravaging pandemic. “The ministry was busy trying to find which vaccine was conducive for people to use so there was an emergency approval of the usage of vaccines for a ravaging pandemic,” he said. And the ministry said it has been monitoring how people who have been vaccinated with either Astra-Zeneca and Johnson Johnson were reacting to the vaccines and the feedback has so far been impressive. Dr. Kabalo said the ministry has made improvements in procuring dialysis consumables and a number of patients across the country were being dialysed. The country in May this year suffered a serious shortage of consumables, a situation which led to a high mortality rate among renal patients.