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Shift Media News 
BY PATRICK JARAMOGI
KAMPALA, Uganda|SHIFTMEDIA| As we publish this Uganda currently has cumulative confirmed cases of 2,362 covid-19 cases, the latest being 99 new cases that were announced by the Ministry of Health following tests carried out on Sunday, August 23, 2020.
The emerging statistics that has seen the Inspector General of Police John Martins Okoth Ochola suspend operations at the Uganda Police Headquarters and Command Center in Naguru for three days, starting today (Monday- Thursday) is worrying. The Uganda Prisons service has also called for conducting tests of all its inmates and staff after 154 cases of covid-19 were reported in Amuru Prison at the weekend.
The rising figures with 22 deaths have triggered fears among the public regarding an eminent lockdown as both government and the COVID-19 National Task Force held a two-day crisis meeting and another meeting with President Museveni earlier on Monday.
The latest deaths are from a 35-year-old business lady attached to Kikuubo, a popular downtown business hub in Kampala, and another of a 36 years old male from Kisenyi,
Much as reports of another lockdown are rife, due to reports of a pending presidential address any time this week, medics elsewhere in the world are not sleeping as they struggle to get the vaccine.
Should The President Announce Another Lockdown?
This is the multimillion question with several answers to it currently sending waves in Uganda. Much as Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng in an earlier interview revealed that at this stage, it would be necessary to shut down for a while to suppress mass deaths, other analysts especially traders, and medics elsewhere are against the lockdown.
It is true there is no vaccine at the moment, but there is hope, and where they is hope, there is life, here is why.
Doctors and scientists from across the world are striving hard to find medicine for coronavirus. Currently, over 100 research groups are busy in researches against this deadly virus. Some vaccine companies have also achieved initial lead but they will take at least two years to achieve the final success.
But even if scientists are able to make a vaccine for coronavirus in the next few months, it will take a lot of time to make it reach 7.5 billion people of the world. In such a situation, doctors around the world are trying a few already available medicines on COVID-19 patients and some of these drugs have shown results.
The Government of Uganda, with its great medics, should instead try out these new drugs being tested elsewhere to salvage the situation.
In Bangladesh, a team of medical doctors recently reportedly an astounding success in treating patients suffering from COVID-19 with two commonly used drugs, Doxycycline and Ivermectin. Dr. Tarek Alam from the Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, and one of the senior members of the team, reportedly stated that a combination of the two drugs were administered to 60 patients, all of whom experienced full recoveries within four days.
The patients were stated to have been suffering from respiratory problems, as well as other symptoms of SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Alam along with the team is stated to be preparing a scientific paper discussing the effectiveness of the treatment to be published for peer-review.
Dr. Alam reportedly stated that antiprotozoal medicine called Ivermectin in a single dose with Doxycycline, an antibiotic yielded the near-miraculous result in curing COVID-19 patients. He further stated that his team was prescribing the two medicines only for coronavirus patients, most of them initially reporting with respiratory problems with related complaints, later to be tested COVID-19 positive.
Ivermectin sticks to the parasite present in the body and the parasite are not able to excrete its larvae in the body, and thus is killed by this drug. Even in India, the drug is being used in some states on coronavirus patients and doctors are hopeful that this easily available medicine would prove an effective weapon in the fight against coronavirus.
This is too early to come to a conclusion, but to get answers on why the world is looking at this medicine with great hope, Zee Media spoke to experts in the medical world.
Dr. Aarti Lal Chandani, Principal of Kanpur Medical College, told Zee Media “Ivermectin is a drug that is part of the World Health Organization’s deworming programme and is considered safe in the WHO’s Safety List. It is also used as a de-worming tablet and being used to treat coronavirus patients. Many Indian hospitals in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur and Delhi are also trying this medicine on COVID-19 patients.”
According to Health expert Dr Kaushal Kant Mishra, studies conducted at Monash University Australia and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Lab found that Ivermectin eradicated the coronavirus within 48 hours. The study also found that the use of the drug also weakened the RNA of coronavirus by almost 93 per cent. Although the drug was not tried on humans in the study, the same was done by doctors of a private hospital in Bangladesh.
Doctors of a private hospital in Bangladesh gave Ivermectin as well as an antibiotic drug Doxycycline to 60 coronavirus patients and after 72 hours, they found that all the patients were COVID-19 negative, said Dr KK Mishra.
Ivermectin is considered an antimicrobial drug to increase immunity. If it proves effective in the treatment of coronavirus, it would certainly become a miracle drug, but for that, a major trial is needed. Above all, the drug has shown a ray of hope to the global medical fraternity in the fight against the deadly virus.
