AMTI becomes part of global research for Covid-19 treatment

ABBOTTABAD: The Ayub Medical Teaching Institution, Abbottabad, has become a part of global Research for treatment of Covid-19 and has started to test the efficacy of chloroquine for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States of America, has approved the research and have granted permission for the clinical trial.

The research is being conducted by the Dean and CEO of Ayub Medical Teaching Intuition Professor Dr Umer Farooq, who holds a PhD and has also served as a member of Elite Council of PMDC.

The research is about finding the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine alone and adjuvant with azithromycin in mild to severe Covide-19 pneumonia patients admitted to coronavirus block of ATH, Abbottabad. Professor Dr Umer Farooq told The News told that he had submitted his proposal for the trial to the NIH, USA which approved and register the trials.

He informed that the trials can only be conducted after getting them registered. The details of the trial are available on the website https://www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Coronavirus pandemic has put a lot of lives at risk and has become a global issue. Dr Umer Farooq added that NIH US was a health agency and devoted to medical research. He said that the trial will be conducted on Covid-19 patients admitted in ATH. Patients will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups.

One group will be given Hydroxy cholorquine, 2nd group will be given a combination of Hydroxy Chloroquine and Azithromycin and the third group will be given placebo. The patients will be offered the treatment after explaining them about the trial and only those who will consent will be included in the trial. Dr Umer Farooq is the principal investigator of the trial consisting a team of 20 doctors who will be involved in the treatment of Covid-19 patients in ATH. The preliminary results will be available once 25 patients in each group completed the treatment.