?Did chloroquine really get approved as a corona treatment

U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that chloroquine, one of the oldest and most popular anti-malarial drugs, has been approved in the United States as a treatment for the Corona virus.

Is the US president right, and what is known about the effectiveness of the drug?

Chloroquine has been around for decades, but is no longer recommended in most parts of Africa because malaria parasites have developed resistance against it.

Some countries have issued regulations to limit the use of the drug, but its use is still common in countries with active drug markets in the private sector, where it is widely sold.

This is especially true in Nigeria, where reports have spoken about the high demand for chloroquine in pharmacies, which has led to a decrease in its presence, partly because of Trump's statement regarding its effectiveness in treating the Corona virus.

Chloroquine was not approved as a treatment for coronavirus

Trump, in his daily press release on the latest news related to the emerging coronavirus, confirmed that chloroquine had been approved as a treatment for the virus by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for licensing medicines in America.

"We will be able to make this drug available almost immediately. The US Food and Drug Administration has been wonderful. Complete the approval stages - it has been approved," Trump said.

However, for clarity, chloroquine has been approved as a treatment for malaria and arthritis. The FDA was clear in saying that this does not apply to treatment of people with Covid-19 virus.

"There are no treatments or drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat or prevent Covid-19," the administration said.

However, the Food and Drug Administration said studies are continuing to determine whether chloroquine has efficacy in treating the emerging coronavirus. She added that she had received instructions from Trump to conduct clinical trials to investigate the effect of the drug.

What is the status of research at the global level?

Not surprisingly, chloroquine is part of research aimed at improving the condition of patients with the Coronavirus. The drug is known and widespread, and it is cheap and easy to produce. It was used to reduce fever and inflammation in malaria patients.

"According to laboratory studies, it appears that chloroquine is blocking the emerging corona virus," says James Gallagher, the BBC's health affairs correspondent. There is evidence of some pathological cases in which doctors found that chloroquine appeared to be helpful.

Crucially, no complete clinical trials have occurred, which is important to know how the drug affects actual patients, although trials are now continuing in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

For its part, the World Health Organization says there is still no conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of chloroquine, but it is part of ongoing trials to find a cure for the emerging coronavirus.

"In order to find out which drugs can treat viral infection, we need to conduct clinical trials to obtain full evidence to see if they are effective or not," said Professor Trudy Lang, director of the World Health Network at Oxford University.

The circulation of a name with the drug recently led to an escalation of interest in it and a remarkable activity in searching for it on the Internet.

Searches for chloroquine increased significantly last week, according to Google search engine data, and businessman Elon Musk caused a stir when he published some research about him on Twitter.

Buying a panic result in Nigeria

Talking about the Corona virus epidemic is happening on the lips of every Nigerian, in churches, mosques and schools, according to Daniel Semeniorima, from the BBC in Lagos.

Many Nigerian families continue to use chloroquine tablets to treat malaria despite its ban in 2005.

News of a study conducted in February in China on the use of chloroquine as a treatment for the Corona virus, sparked interest in the drug in Lagos, and people began purchasing it and storing it.

And after the Trump talk of chloroquine as a treatment for the Corona virus, the matter was running out very quickly from shops and pharmacies.

But the communicable disease control centers in Nigeria have asked people to stop taking chloroquine.

"The WHO has not approved the use of chloroquine for the treatment of corona," said Daniel Semeniorima.

Seminyorima added that people make decisions that are not well informed, in their attempt to keep them safe, but this has serious medical consequences.

It has been reported that medical staff in Lagos have recently started to deal with a number of poisoning cases due to chloroquine overdoses.