Gov’t pushing ahead with procurement of FDA-approved COVID-19 treatment for children

Now that 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 government through the Ministry of Health is pushing ahead with procurement. 

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,” Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P., announced during Thursday’s COVID-19 update.

The minister added that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many children across the world and treating them was never simple.

He noted 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.

There are cases when sometimes they do present with severe illnesses and it has been challenging in managing those patients,” he said.

Additionally, the health minister said Guyana has been using Remdesivir and Molnupiravir to treat COVID-19 patients, however these medications are mostly used in the adult population.

He noted 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.”

In terms of the Molnupiravir treatment, minister Anthony said approval has also been granted to treat severe cases. This medication is now available locally and produced by a licensed company here.

Dr. Anthony also noted that the ministry is prepared to treat children with severe COVID-19 if any case is to be recorded.

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