Coronavirus: Egypt starts plasma therapy trials, ministry says

CAIRO – 30 April 2020: The Egyptian Health Ministry will start injecting plasma of patients who have recovered from the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) into severely ill patients with the novel virus, the ministry quoted Minister Hala Zayed as saying on Thursday.

Plasma from recovered cases have the antibodies required to battle the virus inside other patients and curb its replication.

Zayed said that Egypt has the required experience in the convalescent plasma therapy and that the ministry is working hard through scientific research to find treatment for coronavirus patients.

Plasma were extracted from six people who have recovered from coronavirus, the ministry’s statement revealed, and tests indicated that three of them were good to use.

Plasma was already injected into one patient, the ministry said, adding that other patients will also undergo the same treatment, in accordance with the research protocol in this regard. The results will be continuously announced, said the statement.

Once patients respond to treatment, convalescent plasma therapy will be widely applied, through inviting recovered people to donate plasma, in order to help save patients who are in critical condition, the ministry added.

Earlier, Egypt started treating 50 coronavirus patients with the Japanese antiviral drug Avigan, announced Mohamed Tag El-Deen, the Advisor for Health Affairs to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Friday.

Last week, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said the ministry has managed to communicate with the Japanese manufacturer of the antiviral drug Avigan to treat patients with coronavirus (COVID-19).

The drug, developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., has been stored in Japan as a treatment for influenza. Reports in China showed that the drug has been effective in treating COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Japan plans to provide Avigan for free to 20 countries hoping to use it to treat COVID-19 patients and will provide the United Nations Office for Project Services with a $1 million grant to buy and distribute the drug, according to Japan’s national daily The Mainichi.

Health Ministry denies producing chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients

CAIRO - 8 April 2020: The Egyptian Health Ministry on Wednesday denied the news that a pharmaceutical company based in the Egyptian capital Cairo started producing chloroquine phosphate medication primarily used to treat malaria patients, describing the company's alleged statement as "void of truth."

226 people in Egypt tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) recently and 21 people died, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, shortly after it noted that 25% of the announced fatalities died before reaching quarantine hospitals as they arrived at hospitals too late.

This brings the total number of reported cases and deaths to 5,268 and 380 respectively, the ministry said.

As many as 1,712 people of the reported cases had their results come back negative, including 1,335 people who fully recovered.

Also, 31 cases, all of them Egyptians, left hospital after they recovered, according to the instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO).