South African scientists are preparing to join a major international clinical trial to test whether the antimalarial drug chloroquine — which US President Donald Trump claims to be taking, outside of scientific guidelines — can protect healthcare workers from Covid-19 infection.
“We will go wherever healthcare workers are at risk,” she said, explaining they would be taking an innovative approach with everything going online, including the consent.
Bekker said SA’s contribution to the trial included expanding the definition of a healthcare worker to be very broad, including “anyone who may have exposure — a community nurse that does triage at the door or a porter who may not have N95 masks”. “We want to keep healthcare workers alive and well and [this will test] if it is as simple as a pill a day.”
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