Health
Turks & Caicos + Merck’s COVID pill treatment
#TurksandCaicos, November 5, 2021 – It will be up to the TCI Hospitals, which are managed by InterHealth Canada whether or not Merck’s reddish pill which has been approved for emergency use in the United Kingdom, will be administered to patients presenting in Turks and Caicos with Covid-19.
The UK is the first country to approve the oral antiviral pill, which it reports is “very effective at curbing the risk of Covid-19.”
Molnupiravir (Merck’s pill) is also being considered by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency of the EU.
It has now become a pattern, it seems, for the United Kingdom in response to Covid-19; the UK was the first country last year to approve the Pfizer jabs; first to start with its senior population getting the vaccine and now the first to
Health Minister for the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jamell Robinson said, “the UK will provide all of its overseas territories with advice, however for the Turks and Caicos Islands the decision will rest with the hospital. The ministry does not dictate their treatment plans for medications. We will collaborate with the hospital.”
Clinical trials have revealed, Merck’s antiviral pill reduces symptoms and speeds recovery. This breakthrough would mean a dramatic relief for medical treatment facilities which have been overwhelmed in the pandemic. Over five million people have died to Covid-19 in under two years of the pandemic.
Reports estimate, the introduction of Merck’s pill would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.
The UK has informed, it will first conduct a study to determine the most ideal distribution of its supply of the new drug. It is unclear, at this stage, if the Turks and Caicos will benefit from the same, generous arrangement which brought five batches of Coronavirus vaccine to the territory between January and September 2020, at no expense to the territory.