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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScientists Hope Ebola Drug Can Be a COVID-19 Killer
Its the one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy against COVID-19, according to World Health Organization officials. Two patients near death who recently took an experimental dose made remarkable recoveries. But its not the overhyped antimalaria drug being pushed by President Trump.
In February, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in partnership with the University of Nebraska announced a randomized, controlled clinical study of remdesivir that aims to enroll 440 participants at 37 different locations across the country. The study is aimed at seeing how the drug helps patients who have relatively more severe cases of COVID-19 than those with just mild symptoms. To qualify, participants need to have tested positive for COVID-19 and show signs that the disease has affected their lungs, as evidenced in chest X-rays or other signs of respiratory issues.
At least two of the patients involved in the NIH study were part of a group of 14 Americans (with an average age of 75) who tested positive for coronavirus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had docked in Japan. The NIH characterized the patients as near death, but all of them survived after receiving the drug, an outcome that the Institutes called amazing. Still, the survival of those patients remains little more than a welcome anecdote and far short of proof that the drug itself was responsible for their recovery.
Scientists had already conducted some research on remdesivir against other members of the coronavirus family, like the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which broke out in 2012, and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome responsible for a 2003 epidemic in East Asia. Studies that took place in labs and on mice and Rhesus macaques found some promise that the drug could stop the viruses from replicating. Those kinds of studies fall short of the randomized human clinical trials that offer the best data about a drugs safety and efficacy, but the previous research was enough to pique scientific interest in remdesivirs performance in humans.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/coronavirus-scientists-hope-ebola-drug-remdesivir-can-be-a-covid-19-killer?ref=topic
RT Atlanta
(2,517 posts)the best researchers around the planet are concentrated on this now.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)cures that were announced in Australia and Cuba about a week ago? I haven't heard a word since. Probably a no go but no word one way or the other.