Unfortunate or fortunate? Low number of COVID-19 cases at PGH may delay ongoing VCO clinical trial

Only five patients are needed to be enrolled in a clinical trial on the effectiveness of virgin coconut oil (VCO) as an adjunct therapy for hospitalized coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said Friday, July 2.

Amid this development, DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said the decreasing number of moderate to severe COVID-19 admissions at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) may delay the study for a month.

“To date, the project team has enrolled 69 patients in the study out of the targeted 74 patients. Naku lima na lang para matapos (We only need five for its complete rollout),” he said during his weekly report on Friday, July 2.

He said of the 69 patients, 33 patients are under the VCO group, while 36 patients are receiving the standard care only.

“Well, fortunately or unfortunately dumalang na naman ang admission ng moderate and severe sa PGH at itong mga nakaraang lingo eh one patient a week lang ang nadadagdag (Well, fortunately or unfortunately, the admission of moderate and severe at PGH has decreased and these past few weeks, only one patient a week was admitted),” the DOST chief said.

"Hindi ko naman maipagdasal na dumami sana ang pasyente. Actually maganda naman kung kokonti na ang magiging moderate and severe , pero ibig sabihin nito eh baka abutin pa ng isang buwan bago pa makumpleto yung 74 targeted participants. ( I don’t want to pray for an increase in the number of patients.Actually, it would be nice that if there would be fewer moderate and severe , but this would mean that maybe it will take a month for us to complete the 74 targeted participants),” he added.

The team of Dr. Marissa M. Alejandria of the University of the Philippines-Manila National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) is conducting the VCO clinical trial.

The PGH’s 12 month-long VCO study is one of the country’s ongoing studies on VCO eyed to be completed by June this year.

The project, which employed a randomised controlled trial design, was supposed to be implemented from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021.

Since 2020, the Philippines has been looking into the effectiveness of VCO as an adjunct therapy for hospitalized COVID patients and a potential supplement to help prevent symptoms from becoming severe for probable and suspect COVID-19 cases.

Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/06/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-pghs-vco-clinical-trial/