Why COVID-19 patients are treated with anti-malaria drugs – NCDC

Chikwe Iheakweazu, the director-general of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday spoke on the differences between COVID-19 and malaria.

This follows recent revelations by some high-profile survivors, who spoke about the drugs administered on them during their treatment. One of the survivors, Raymond Dokpesi who is the founder of DAAR communications Plc, had said that all the drugs administered on him were anti-malaria medication.

But speaking at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, the NCDC boss said: ”I think we all know COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a virus. Malaria is caused by a parasite. They are completely different diseases.

“However, many diseases present exactly the same way in the beginning. Yellow fever presents the same way with fever at the beginning, Lassa fever the same way with malaria.

“So, the initial presentation of a febrile illness is similar across diseases. There is no specific treatment for COVID-19. What clinicians do is to manage your symptoms so that your body recovers as quickly as possible.

“You can have Malaria and COVID-19. That you have COVID-19 doesn’t prevent you from having Malaria and if you are in a hospital for one month, you could definitely be co-infected by both of them.

“So there are many reasons why people receive similar treatments but they are two completely different diseases with different parthenogenesis.” he said