As of Monday, April 13, Rwanda had at least one-third of the COVID-19 cases registered locally recovered and had not recorded any death since the first case was confirmed one month ago. Rwanda has recorded a total of 127 cases. Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director-General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) explained to The New Times how the patients are treated. “The first thing is to find infected people before they show the signs, second is to treat symptoms before they appear, and the third is to stabilize the body and organs whenever needed, he says. Nsanzimana explains that with no specific drug, COVID-19 is weakened by treating the symptoms with already available drugs. “There are several types of drugs, but for example, if someone needs oxygen, you provide it and then the body produces antibodies when it stabilises. When the body has high temperature, we use antipyretics to reduce the fever, and when one is coughing, we use anti-cough drugs.” He added that it all depends on what kind of symptoms the patient is presenting. The elderly and people with underlying health conditions have proven to be the most vulnerable to developing complications caused by this novel coronavirus. “Even for some of our patients who have chronic diseases like asthma or diabetes, our doctors have been treating those conditions at COVID-19 treatment centre. These also have recovered and discharged, despite having underlying conditions. We were very happy at how our doctors managed to treat them. “You just treat the conditions they have, then reduce the burden of coronavirus by treating its symptoms. And we are lucky now, our patients develop antibodies so quickly, and we hope it will continue like this.” Drugs being considered Nsanzimana said: “There are three drugs that we are bringing in our treatment options that are specific to the virus but are still under trial because there is no confirmed drug of Coronavirus in the world.” The drugs are; Lopinavir/ritonavir that currently used in Rwanda to treat and prevent HIV, Hydroxychloroquine that is usually used to prevent and treat malaria, and Remdesvir, an antiviral medication being studied as a possible treatment for COVID-19. However, these three drugs have not yet been used because no patient has had a need for them. Why zero COVID-19 deaths According to Nsanzimana, many factors can be attributed to the fact that zero death has been recorded in Rwanda, including early testing, before one can develop complications. “It is not because our patients are younger, because we had few patients aged above sixty, and they all recovered. So, the reason is probably not the age, but early treatment. “As of now, we cannot say that it is not happening in the future, but we are doing our best to prevent it.” Nsanzimana says they don’t know much about the virus, but they are learning new things every day, and hope to prevent new infections and complications. “We must protect the elderly; wherever there is a person older than sixty years, because they could get serious complications. We protect them by not approaching them, not hugging them, not sharing utensils with them, and others.” Worldwide, COVID-19 cases are almost two million while the death toll stands at over 121,000.
