Coronavirus: Baghdad government mulling use of Russian drug

Ambassador in Moscow says Avifavir could be used in Iraq but Health Ministry sounds more cautions note

A medical worker dressed in PPE prepares to take swabs from subjects being tested for Covid-19 coronavirus disease Iraq's southern Basra. AFP

The Iraqi ambassador in Moscow said his government will be talking to Russia about using a new coronavirus drug he described as curing up to 90 per cent of the cases.

Ambassador Abdulrahman Al Husseini said on Twitter on Tuesday he had told the Iraqi Health Ministry about the drug Avifavir.

Reuters reported that Russia will start giving Avifavir as an approved medicine to treat COVID-19 in the coming week.

Mr Al Husseini said the Russian authorities “proved that Avifavir “has a 90 per cent efficacy to treat those infected with the coronavirus“

“It was agreed to conduct talks with the Russian side to study the properties of this medicine and the possibility of making use of it in Iraq,” Mr Al Husseini said.

But the Iraqi health Ministry was more circumvent on Thursday. Its Secretary General Hazem Al Jumeili told the Iraqi National News Agency that the ministry asked the ambassador to know more about the drug from the Russian side.

Mr Al Jumeili said the ambassador will be providing Information about “how the mechanism of the drug works and its side effects.”

Japan has been performing trials on the same drug, known there as Avigan, using $128 million in government funding, but Avigan is yet to be approved for use.

Avifavir appeared on an official Russian list of approved drugs on Saturday.

Local officials in Iraq have repeatedly warned that the country could lose the containment effort against the contagion amid widespread lack of adherence to bans on movement.

Official coronavirus cases in Iraq surpassed 7,000 cases this week with 235 recorded fatalities.

Coronavirus in the region - in pictures

A Yemeni man walks at a market in the old quarter of Sanaa. Reuters

Aswin Sarang, head of Reliable Robotics company, stands with a fever detection and hand sanitiser dispenser robot in Dubai. Before the pandemic, the company had been renting the robots out for events to welcome guests, but since the Covid-19 outbreak, Reliable Robotics has used its technology to help fight the spread of coronavirus. EPA

Iraqi Kurds gather during a demonstration demanding the end of coronavirus lockdown in the city of Sulaimaniyah, in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq. AFP

A traffic jam at the Dubai border going towards Abu Dhabi on Sheikh Zayed road in Dubai, as Abu Dhabi Police check movement permits. Pawan Singh / The National

Palestinians gather at a stall to buy fish in Gaza City. AFP

A Palestinian man displays office chairs for sale outside a store, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Reuters

Palestinian vendors wait for customers behind their stall in Gaza City. AFP

A Palestinian woman walks past the construction site of an office building, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Reuters

A mask-clad man cares for a garden near the Erbil Citadel in the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. AFP

Pigeons flying in an empty square outside Erbil Citadel in the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. AFP

A banner with pictures of the English football club Liverpool player Mohamed Salah, Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo of the Italian club Juventus, is seen above a cafe that has been transformed into a vegetable shop in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters

A worker carries tomatoes at a cafe that has been transformed into a vegetable shop, in Cairo, Egypt. Reuters

Passengers wait in line for check-in for their repatriation flight for Libya, at the Tunis Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA

A worker disinfects surfaces at the Terminal of the Tunis Carthage International Airport in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA