Maseru, Mar. 06 — Following introduction of COVID-19 Test To Treat (T2T) medication in the country early this year, the treatment is said to be registering progress.
This was disclosed by District Health Management Team (DHMT) Public Health Nurse Mrs. Lereng Makoae in an interview where she said that though there is not much statistics but patients’ reception is promising.
She said that she does not have a report for the month of January but for the month of February about five patients were reported to have gone to Queen II hospital for access of COVID-19 T2T medication.
She said that this is positive and encouraging that at least people know about the medication saying with time they will hopefully report to health facilities as soon as they have symptoms.
She highlighted that they have also discovered that people came to the facility after exceeding the five days eligibility period. “People should come or go to a health facility within five days of discovering symptoms because the treatment should be administered within five days,” she said.
On the other hand, she mentioned that they have sensitized chiefs, community councillors as well as Village Health Workers about the medication.
Meanwhile there are two medications to be administered for COVID-19 treatment namely Molnupiravir and Paxlovid which is a symptom set of five days taken twice daily.
Molnupiravir is administered to 18 years and above patients while Paxlovid is for those aged 12 and above. The former has no drug to drug intervention but the latter has drug to drug intervention.
The treatment is targeting only outpatients and with time other admitted patients will be included as a way to ensure integration of primary health care.
Lesotho had its first COVID-19 case on May 13, 2020. There were two treatment centres established in Berea and Mafeteng.
As of October 2023, Lesotho recorded about 35 963 confirmed cases with 709 deaths but increased to 710 deaths with a case reported last month (December).
To date 1, 437, 216 vaccine doses have been administered.
