The Senegalese authorities communicated on Sunday their intention to continue prescribing hydroxychloroquine to Covid-19 patients after a preliminary analysis showing a reduction in the length of hospital stay, while the country faces a constant increase in cases.
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They also, faced with this continuous increase, announced their decision not to systematically hospitalize patients with little or no symptoms, but to isolate them in sites open for this purpose, in order to relieve hospitals.
Dakar markets closed
They also decided on Saturday evening to close the Dakar markets on Saturdays and Sundays and to reduce their frequency during the week. The number of customers should also be limited in supermarkets, said the prefecture in a statement.
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Health authorities have officially declared 1,115 cases of contamination and nine deaths in the two months since the confirmation of the appearance of the virus on March 2, according to a new report released Sunday. "The major finding is that the epidemic is not weakening," said Minister of Health, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, to the press.
He assured that the pandemic remains under control. But he stressed that in one month the number of cases had "more than fivefold" and that the transmission was occurring more and more by a more worrying and so-called community route, that is to say without an established link between the new cases and those already detected.
Senegal quickly made the choice to follow the example of French professor Didier Raoult and to generalize the prescription, in a hospital environment, of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug available on the market, at the heart of an international quarrel of experts regarding its efficacy and harmlessness.
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Professor Moussa Seydi, infectiologist who coordinates the treatment of the contaminated, presented the results of a "preliminary" analysis showing that, out of 181 patients, the median duration of hospitalization was 13 days for patients who had not received no treatment, 11 for those who received hydroxychloroquine alone, 9 for those who received hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin (antibiotic), and even 8 for those who consulted early and started treatment within 24 hours.
Few side effects
According to this analysis, this time involving 362 subjects, unspecified side effects were observed in 12 people, he said. Treatment was continued for four of them because the effects were not "bothersome", and stopped for the other 8, but there were "no serious side effects" and all signs subsided. the end of treatment, he reported.
"Given these preliminary results, we will continue our treatment with hydroxychloroquine," he said. Over 700 patients are treated in 20 treatment centers.