Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri on Saturday urged the Department of Health (DOH) to let hospitals to try using the medicines that other countries use in effectively fighting the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“Please, please, please try the drugs already in use by Thailand, Korea and India where it seems to be working and they have lessened their death rates: Lopinavir, ritonavir, oseltamivir, and chloroquine sulfate,” Zubiri said in his Facebook post.
The drugs he mentioned, however, have yet to be approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) nor by the DOH.
Zubiri added that the Philippines now has “one of the highest death rates of COVID-19 in the region at almost 10 percent.”
As of Saturday, there have been eight recorded deaths of COVID-19 in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the country has a total of 98 positive coronavirus cases.
“Pls make it an option in our hospitals as the other hospitals are waiting pa for the go signal of WHO,” Zubiri said. “If we wait, more people will die here in the country.”
Zubiri added that patients should be allowed to sign a waiver to try the drugs, saying: “It should be an option they can take.”
Subject to regulatory standards
But the four drugs, as DOH Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press briefing, will still be subjected to “regulatory standards.”
“Ang regulatory standards po ay ginagamit ng kahit na anong bansa, o kahit na anong health system para masiguro na ang binibigay naming gamot ng ating mga kababayan ay ligtas at saka effective,” Vergeire explained.
(The regulatory standards are what any country or any health system uses to make sure that the medicine we give is safe and effective.)
“Para magamit natin ito, kailangan sumailalim na naman ito sa regulatory standards kung tama nga ba na ginagamit natin ay para sa sakit na COVID-19,” she added.
(To use these, they have to undergo regulatory standards to see if they can be used for COVID-19).