DOST-FNRI) Director Dr. Imelda Angeles Agdeppa, who leads the research team on the “randomized double-blind controlled intervention trial” on VCO, disclosed this at the sidelines of Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña’s weekly report on Friday, May 28.
“it seems that Valenzuela City cannot actually give us the required 120 subjects so we actually coordinated another study site in Ospital ng Muntinlupa. We have coordinated this with the director of Muntinlupa Hospital and we presented this study yesterday,” the FNRI top official said. The VCO trial study among 120 COVID-19 patients in Valenzuela City started in February following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the City of Valenzuela, DOST-National Capital Region , and DOST-FNRI, in collaboration with the DOST- , and Philippine Coconut Authority .
The FNRI-led VCO clinical trial seeks to evaluate the beneficial effect of virgin coconut oil given to suspect and probable cases of COVID-19 who are quarantined in a center or hospital.In December 2020, the FNRI team reported the effectiveness of VCO on 57 probable and suspected cases at the Santa Rosa Community Quarantine Facility and in Santa Rosa Community Hospital.