Controversial  drugs  withdrawn  from covid health kits

 Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre, reports that in August ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were withdrawn as drugs for the management of patients with Covid-19 after the arrival of vaccines against as the “most important tool to combat the disease.”

He explained that a team of specialist doctors from different branches who developed the protocol for the care of patients with Covid-19 determined to remove those two drugs from the “Protect yourself Panama” kit which was provided to patients.

“Medical studies on ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are still not robust and in the middle of a platform still under discussion … and with the appearance of the vaccine, there is no reason to continue with the proposals for these two drugs,” Sucre said.

He recalled that at the beginning of the pandemic, and in the absence of vaccines, hydroxychloroquine was one of the first drugs that emerged with the greatest probability to combat the disease, but then the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization recommended  not use them, since “they did not prevent the death of patients with Covid-19.”

Sucre indicated that the Minsa continues to buy hydroxychloroquine because “it is a medicine that is used for the treatment of other diseases related to collective tissue and for malaria.”

However, he warned that studies have confirmed that the prolonged use of hydroxychloroquine in patients for the treatment of autoimmune diseases causes “alteration of the heart rhythm, when it is prescribed for four or five days for patients with Covid-19.”

A report from the Directorate of Medicines and Supplies for Health of the Minsa indicates that in the third purchase in the joint Minsa-CSS table, in April 2021, 1 million ivermectin tablets and 3 million acetaminophen tablets were purchased for the Protect yourself Panama kits.

The MCM company won the tender for $310,000.