Antimalaria Drug Chloroquine Phosphate Proves Effective In Coronavirus Treatment
As the world races to find a solution to the Coronavirus Infection, it seems Chinese scientists may have got some positive solutions already.
Here’s some great news about the COVID-19 infection. Chinese experts have confirmed that Chloroquine Phosphate, which is an antimalarial drug, has been shown to have some impact in combating the infection. According to a report in The Star, Sun Yanrong, deputy head of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that experts have unanimously agreed that the drug should be included in the next version of coronavirus treatment guidelines.
Since the outbreak, clinical trials against the COVID-19 disease have involved the use of several antiviral drugs. Choloroquine Phosphate, along with Favipiravir and Remdesivir were selected after multiple rounds of screening,
Image source: The Star
Possible Coronavirus treatment: Chloroquine Phosphate
According to Sun, Chloroquine Phosphate has been in clinical trials in over 10 hospitals in Beijing. Also in south China’s Guangdong Province and central China’s Hunan Province. Patients in the trials showed considerable improvement in the different indicators of the disease compared to their parallel groups. Fever abated, there was improvement in the CT images of the lungs and the recovery time was also shorter.
Sun also gave an example of how a 54-year-old patient in Beijing took the drug for a week, after he was admitted to the hospital showing symptoms. After a week, indicators improved and the nucleic acid turn negative.
In addition Sun said there have been no serious adverse reactions related to the drug.
Image: Pixabay
According to Zhang Xinmin, who is the director of the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology, researchers scanned more than 70,000 drugs or compounds through computer simulations and in vitro enzyme activity tests. And selected 5,000 potentially effective drug candidates. These drugs were tested at the cellular level against the common coronavirus infection. And about 100 drugs were chosen for further experiments, which helped to select the final drugs for clinical trials.
image source: pixabay
Around the world scientists and drug companies are working to develop vaccines and drugs to combat the disease.
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