No approved treatments yet for COVID-19: WHO

Geneva : The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that a number of treatments are under clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19, but none of those were yet approved.

"There are hundreds of clinical trials that are underway, and the reason we need to wait for the results of these studies is because they are evaluating how these medicines, how these drugs work, in terms of either preventing infection, preventing someone from progressing to severe disease, preventing death and how safe they are, do they have any side effects," Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said on Friday in a press conference in Geneva, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Right now, WHO has launched the 'Solidarity Trial' which is a clinical trial focusing on some drugs, some therapeutics, to look at whether or not these are safe and effective for COVID-19. There are more than 2,500 patients enrolled in this multi-site clinical trial," she said.

"And it will take some time before we have full answers to which treatments work, but right now we don't have any approved treatments for COVID-19." she added.Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, stressed the importance of proper process to ensure safety.