Tocilizumab effective against Covid-19: Experts

KABUL (Pajhwok): Health experts acknowledge information disseminated regarding the treatment of Covid-19 with Tocilizumab Ampol and say the drug is used to assist Covid-19 patient not as main anti-Covid-19 drug.

Claim: Tocilizumab is considered one of the effective medicines to treat Covid-19

Verdict: Tocilizumab is not totally effective against Covid-19 but it helps treat Covid-19 to some extent

A website Daktarto wrote an article that Tocilizumab has become an effective medicine against Covid-19 when it gets severe.

But to what extent Tocilizumab is effective.

Tocilizumab is effective in reducing the harms caused by Covid-19. In some cases Tocilizumab helped reduce the number of deaths.

Emna News Agency in its report said that Tocilizumab is effective against the virus and plays positive role and helps in the treatment of Covid-19.

However, continued use of Tocilizumab may have side effects and could lead to cancer and other deadly diseases because this medicine harms the body tissues.

According to Relief Web, Tocilizumab is the second drug ever recommended by the WHO for COVID-19 treatment after recommending dexamethasone in September 2020. It belongs to the class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), that are used in the treatment of various diseases including cancers.

However, most of the existing mAbs have been priced extremely high, and are hence virtually impossible to access in low- and middle-income countries.

“Medical practitioners in many countries in Africa and Latin America, who are grappling with newer and more transmissible variants of coronavirus, are right now struggling to keep their patients alive,” said Julien Potet, Neglected Tropical Diseases Policy Advisor at MSF’s Access Campaign.

“This drug could become essential for treating people with critical and severe cases of COVID-19 and reduce the need for ventilators and medical oxygen which are scarce resources in many places. Roche must stop following a business-as-usual approach and take urgent steps to make this drug accessible and affordable for everyone who needs it by reducing the price and transferring the technology, know-how and cell lines to other manufacturers. Too many lives are at stake.”

After the outbreak of the coronavirus, the high sales of tocilizumab and the increase in its price.

Naeem Hamidi, a pharmacist in Kuta-i-Sangi area of Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News that after the spread of the coronavirus, the sale of tocilizumab ampoules had increased as the drug was used to treat inflammation. He added this medicine was used in the hospital to treat Covid patients

He said this ampoule, which was used for severe and even dying patients, at the beginning of the spread of the Covid, its prices reached 18,000 afghanis, but at the peak of the virus the price increased even reached 50,000 afghanis.

But he said currently the number of people infected with Covid had decreased, the price of an ampule of tocilizumab reached 20,000 afghanis.

Medical experts: tocilizumab is fruitful drugs.

Dr. HashmatullahFaizi, the quality control officer and trainer at Afghan-Japan Hospital in Kabul, told Pajhwok that this medicine was provided to Covid patients.

He added although it was not the specific medicine to cure Covid, but due to its effectiveness, it was used as an auxiliary medicine to reduce the symptoms of Covid.

He added that tocilizumab was the only medicine that was used especially for severe patients of Covid and controls the sever condition of the disease.

Faizi added, this ampoule was used a lot to treat germs, the lungs of Covid patients become microbial and this ampoule destroyed germs.

At the same time, “Khabar Online” news site published a reported titled “New hope in the treatment of some sever cases of Covid/ Relative recovery of symptoms of this disease with the help of Iranian medicine” in the article by Dr. KianooshJahanpo.

Tocilizumab is a regulator of the body’s immune system.

He said the medicine had been used for Covid patients and it had given positive results and it reduced the Covid symptoms of these infected with the virus.

nh/sa/ma