The Nigeria Medical Association [NMA] has described claims that chloroquine phosphate is a cure for coronavirus, aka COVID-19, as untrue.

The NMA said the anti-malaria drug, popularly in Nigeria in the 80s and 90s, is not a proven antidote for the killer disease.

According to the China News Service, in late January, Chinese medical researchers stated that, in exploratory research considering a selection of 30 drug candidates, three of them, remdesivir, chloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir, seemed to have “fairly good inhibitory effects” on coronavirus at the cellular level.

But the NMA President, Dr. Adedayo Faduyile, stated that researchers had not “established” chloroquine as a remedy for the pandemic disease.

Faduyile also noted that there was no longer chloroquine in the country since its use was stopped several years ago after the malaria parasite developed a resistance to the drug.

“It has not been established and, again, chloroquine is not one of the drugs in the country because it has always been for the treatment of malaria and they are not using it for malaria (anymore). So, that is the situation,” he said in a Punch report.

“(My advice) is just for us to be careful against coronavirus and to guard against it coming into the country.”