Procurement of FDA-approved COVID-19 treatment for children being pushed ahead by Gov’t

As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the COVID-19 treatment called Paxlovid, to treat children with the severe form of the disease, the Guyana government through the Health Ministry is pushing ahead with procurement.

It was disclosed that the treatment is an oral antiviral medication and is manufactured and produced by the Pfizer Company.“We have been in communication with Pfizer to be able to procure Paxlovid and hopefully we’ll be able to have those arrangements in place so that we can have Paxlovid in Guyana,” Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, revealed during Thursday’s COVID-19 update.

Dr. Anthony noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many children across the world and treating them was never simple. He disclosed that although children have shown milder symptoms of the disease, there are others with comorbidities who are presented with the more severe form of the infection.

“We would have seen that throughout this pandemic it was difficult for us to be able to treat children, although generally children do have a milder form of the illness,” Minister Anthony explained. He continued, “There are cases when sometimes they do present with severe illnesses and it has been challenging in managing those patients.”

The health minister noted that Guyana has been using Remdesivir and Molnupiravir to treat COVID-19 patients, however these medications are mostly used in the adult population. He disclosed that the Remdesivir treatment is also effective in treating children infected with the coronavirus.

“More recently the company making Remdesivir would have presented the data showing that they have done clinical trials among children and that Remdesivir has been very effective so this is a good development,” Dr. Anthony explained. Regarding the Molnupiravir treatment, Dr. Anthony revealed that approval has also been granted to treat severe cases. He said that this medication is now available locally and produced by a licensed company here. The minister pointed out that the ministry is prepared to treat children with severe COVID-19 should any case be recorded.

Minister Anthony said that he continues to appeal to citizens to get vaccinated as it is important for the population to become immunised against the disease. The Minister revealed that there are three COVID-19 vaccines namely; Sinopharm, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson are currently available in the country.