Dr. Mike Ryan: Infection is currently spreading most at home

(Patria) - Dr. Mike Ryan from the World Health Organization believes that it is not enough to just pass the peak of the infection, but that especially after that, cases need to be located, tested, and isolated, thus continuing to apply a more aggressive approach to the epidemic.

- Reducing the number of cases does not only mean 'locking down' and isolation and - that's it. Doubling public health efforts is necessary, Ryan emphasizes.

He advises that all cases with even the slightest suspicion of infection should be tested and isolated in a medical facility (or a building improvised for this purpose). Also, all their contacts should be placed in quarantine if possible, not at home.

Ryan is convinced that the infection is currently spreading most at home, and insists on locating the contacts of the infected person in order to break the chains of infection, as well as isolating the infected outside the home, i.e., hospitalization wherever possible.

Currently, there are no vaccines or therapies for COVID-19, and the WHO claims that it will take another '12 to 18 months' for that. Given that the vaccine approval period takes that long, it can be assumed that they are already on the track of a vaccine.

In this context, antimalarial drugs including chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine are most often mentioned in the media, however, WHO experts claim that further research is needed to determine the effect of these drugs on the coronavirus. Testing is underway, but it is being conducted on such a small number of people that it is difficult to draw conclusions.

The French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) warned on Monday that, although they are currently being tested on some patients, drugs like chloroquine should not be used independently at home.

This agency appealed to doctors not to prescribe this drug for home use, but to possibly only administer it in the context of drug testing - exclusively during the patient's stay in healthcare facilities.

- Adverse effects of this drug have been recorded and are currently being analyzed, according to the ANSM statement, and according to the head of that organization, the drug has already caused three deaths.