Coronavirus Treatment using HIV Drugs – HIV Drugs To Treat Coronavirus
According to a report, as experts search for a cure, China is now using HIV drugs to treat the deadly coronavirus.
While the global search for a cure continues, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, two drugs used to combat HIV sold under the brand name Kaletra by AbbVie, is now a part of the latest treatment plan for patients infected and having pneumonia symptoms from the virus, said the Beijing branch of China’s National Health Commission.
Patients are being advised to take the Ritonavir and lopinavir tablets two times in a day. As there is no effective anti-viral drug yet, the NHC said that it recommends patients are given two lopinavir and ritonavir tablets twice a day and a dose of alpha-interpheron through nebulization twice daily.
On Friday, the Medical journal Lancet said that to treat cases of the new coronavirus using ritonavir and lopinavir, a clinical trial is under way. Meanwhile, according to the Global Times, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China is set to develop a vaccine for the disease.
At Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, a respiratory expert, Wang Guangfa told
China News Week earlier this week that as he was infected by the virus after visiting Wuhan to inspect coronavirus patients, and then his doctor recommended him to take the HIV drugs to fight the new virus and they worked on him, thus fighting the new coronavirus.The US National Institute of Health is hoping to start human trials for a potential vaccine in three months as they are researching the genetic code of the virus.
The death toll from the new coronavirus strain originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan has risen to 80 people as of Sunday, said the Chinese government. The number of those infected by the coronavirus have risen to 2,744, said the Chinese officials. In China, Wuhan and 16 surrounding cities have been placed on lockdown, essentially attempting to isolate a population of more than 50 million. Two cases have been reported in Macao and five cases have been reported in Hong Kong.
In the United States, a total of five people are confirmed to have the virus. Cases have also been scattered in Australia, Canada, France, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and in Thailand.
Coronavirus Treatment using HIV Drugs SOURCES: nypost., bloomberg.
