‘Chloroquine’ used to treat Covid-19 patients since first wave, says Health D-G

malaymail.com
PUTRAJAYA, March 29 — Chloroquine, a drug used for malaria, has been used to treat Covid-19 patients since the first wave of the outbreak in Malaysia and shown its efficacy, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the anti-inflammatory properties of the drug were effective in treating Covid-19 which caused inflammation in the lower respiratory tract.

“When the Covid-19 virus attaches to the lower respiratory tract it causes inflammation and replication of the virus and this drug helps treat the inflammation,” he told a press conference here today. Besides ‘Chloroquine’, Dr Noor Hisham said the combination of ‘Lopinavir and Ritonavir’ and Hydroxychloroquine have also been used by Ministry of Health (MoH) since the first wave of the outbreak. He said the drugs used in the first wave of the infection showed promising results in treating Covid-19, however, further research was still required."