Trials in Africa of a trial with an antiparasitic combined with a corticosteroid to treat mild cases of COVID-19

Thirteen African countries have started recruiting volunteers to test a new combination of drugs to treat people with mild to moderate COVID-19 before their cases worsen.

ANTICOV is the largest study conducted in Africa since the start of the pandemic and will seek to verify the efficacy of broad-spectrum antiparasitic nitazoxanide in combination with ciclesonide, a glucocorticoid used to treat asthma and allergic rhinitis.

Carried out by a consortium of 26 partners, including leading African research institutes and international health organizations, the trial is coordinated by the non-profit research and development (R&D) Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and seeks to identify early treatments for COVID-19 that can prevent progression to serious disease and potentially limit transmission.

“In many African countries, our worst fears are coming true as already saturated intensive care units begin to fill with COVID-19 patients. However, the number of vaccine doses reaching the African continent is too limited. The rapid spread of new variants also threatens to reduce the effectiveness of existing vaccines, which is another major concern.“, Analyzed the director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong, for whom” there is an urgent need to identify affordable and easy-to-administer treatments that can prevent progression to a serious form of disease and slow the rate of infection ”.

The Africa CDC has recorded over 120,000 deaths from COVID-19 On the continent; however, the actual number of victims is estimated to be higher. And with the release of new variants, an increase in new cases is expected in the coming months.

ANTICOV is testing a potential new treatment that offers the combination of drugs to achieve two different mechanisms of action that could act at different stages of the infection: one which is potentially active during the first stage of viral replication of SARS-CoV-2 infection and another which decreases the likelihood of an inflammatory stage which may begin a few days later. Both drugs are now commercially available and will be affordable and easy to access and administer, if proven effective against COVID-19.

The inclusion of the nitazoxanide plus ciclesonide combination in a new branch of the ANTICOV study has been reviewed through the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF) created by the World Health Organization (WHO), which facilitated the regulatory process in each country of ANTICOV, and by the WHO COVID-19 Research Ethics Committee.

The first participants in the new part of the study were recruited from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Guinea. In the coming weeks, participants will be recruited from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sudan and Uganda.

A few days ago, we knew that Rwanda stands out internationally, even among other African countries, as a remarkable success in the face of COVID. He counted 322 dead in the last count. In December, the figure was a third lower, but during the holidays, daily confirmed cases briefly increased during the January period.

KEEP READING: