Donation Of 400 Thousand Chloroquine To Help Cure COVID-19 Patients

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health received 400 thousand Chloroquine tablets from Dexa Media for handling COVID-19 patients. This drug will be distributed to all hospitals in Indonesia.

Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto appreciated PT Dexa Medica's contribution in donating medicines that are badly needed by this COVID-19 patient.

"Thank you also for the fast action and proactivity of PT Dexa Medica which has helped the government in distributing some of the donated medicines directly to various referral, government and private hospitals throughout Indonesia," said Terawan in a statement received by VOI, Saturday, April 18th.

Director of PT Dexa Medica V. Hery Sutanto said that his party would soon distribute Chloroquine to all distributor branch offices. This distribution will start next week.

"We will move quickly to distribute to around 400 hospitals that handle COVID-19 patients throughout Indonesia," said Hery.

For information, Chloroquine is a synthetic version of quinine, which is a natural compound extracted from the bark of the quinine tree since the early 1600s. This drug has been used by malaria patients for several centuries. Now, President Joko Widodo has chosen Chloroquine as a medicine to help cure the corona virus in Indonesia.

According to Karla Satchell, a microbiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the work of this drug slows down the replication of viruses entering cells.

Chloroquine limits the ability of the virus to use space in cells (called vacuoles) to enter its target. Think of it as a 'room' in the body giving the immune system time to catch up.

Clinical trials were conducted in China to test the efficacy of Chloroquine against this new type of corona virus. Initial results suggest the potential to reduce viral replication rates.

Chloroquine is known to be safe for humans. However, at this level an overdose can result in poisoning. In preclinical research, this drug has been shown to be effective against viral infections such as acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and HIV.