Globally, medical researchers are researching drugs for the lung disease Covid-19, which is caused by coronaviruses. A combination therapy by medical professionals works.
The corona virus * is still a mystery to medical professionals.
But now Thai doctors are said to have found therapy against the virus infection.
A combination of two tried and tested medicinal products is said to have an effect.
Other drugs are currently being tested for their effectiveness against Sars-CoV-2.
–
Update from March 17th, 2020: When does the vaccine against the coronavirus come?
Although around 40 vaccine projects are ongoing, it may take some time before an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus * comes onto the market. The prognoses could not be more different: Some doctors expect an effective vaccine as early as 2021, others suspect that no vaccine substances against Sars-CoV-2 could be found in the future. The British disease expert Jeremy Farrar said in an interview with Spiegel in early February that he assumed that that a vaccine against the novel coronavirus will come too late to prevent the global spread of the disease. “And if we are unlucky, it will never succeed,” said his gloomy forecast.
Treatment of Covid-19: Medical professionals use drugs “off-label”
Research is not only focused on vaccine development, researchers are also feverishly looking for antiviral drugs that can be used against Covid-19. For the most part, they concentrate on already approved preparations with the advantage that they can be administered immediately. Antiviral preparations are considered less effective than active substances against bacteria (e.g. antibiotics), but in many cases they can weaken a severe course of the disease. Already at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of 2019, physicians were using “off-label” antiviral medication because (to this day) there are no medications that are specifically effective against the novel pathogen Sars-CoV-2. “Off-label use” means “improper use”: drugs are used against an illness for whose treatment they have no approval from the regulatory authorities.
So far, for example, doctors have done this HIV drug * Kaletra due to an improvement in the symptoms of a corona infection *. Some ongoing studies are now to test this scientifically, as reported by the portal Spektrum.
Sars-CoV-2 and Sars pathogen from 2002/2003: Researchers use similar behavior
Researchers are taking advantage of the similarity between the novel Sars CoV-2 pathogen and the Sars corona virus, which triggered a pandemic in 2003 that claimed nearly 800 lives. “Both viruses use very similar strategies to penetrate cells and may also trigger the disease through similar mechanisms“, Spektrum quotes the infection biologist Markus Hoffmann from the German Primate Center in Göttingen (DPZ):” The existing knowledge about Sars can therefore help to fight Covid-19 *. “Hoffmann, his team and DZIF scientists from the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin came to found that both viruses use the same cell receptor to dock to their target cells, and they were able to identify a cellular enzyme that is essential for the virus to enter lung cells: the protease TMPRSS2, an existing drug that inhibits this protease. could therefore be a promising treatment option, as reported by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF).
It is Camostat Mesilate, a drug approved in Japan for inflammation of the pancreas. This is currently being examined to determine whether it can also prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2. “We tested SARS-CoV-2 from a patient and found that Camostat Mesilate blocks the entry of the virus into lung cells,” said Hoffmann as lead author of the study: “Our results suggest that Camostat Mesilate was also used before Covid-19 could protect “. But this must be investigated further in the context of clinical studies.
Article from 10.03.2020: 168,019 coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide. In the meantime, 6,610 dead have been sued (as of March 17th, 2020). These numbers are extremely worrying, especially because doctors only have symptomatic treatment options, however no causal therapy or even vaccination * is available.
However, Thai doctors are said to have now found a way to successfully treat those affected by combination therapy.
You might also be interested in: Corona virus in Germany – Merkel warns: “Avoid social contacts where possible”
.
Combination therapy from flu and HIV medication is intended to combat coronavirus infection
Two doctors from the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok – specialist Dr. Kriangsak Atipornwanich and Professor Subsai Kongsangdao – said during a conference in the Thai capital, that in a 71-year-old woman, 48 hours after administration of two groups of medication, there was significant improvement in symptoms.
As the Bangkok Post further reported, it was a drug cocktail from the two drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir, used for HIV infections * and one flu drug. Two days after the medication was given, the condition of the Chinese patient would have improved significantly, the doctors said.
In the video: Thailand reports successful treatment of the coronavirus infection
also read: Coronavirus and flu in comparison: This is how the two viral diseases differ.
Effective medication: Chinese patient recovers two days after taking it
AIDS drugs have already been tested in China against the novel coronavirus *. “We checked the related information and also found that anti-flu medication was used by MERS (Note d. editorial staff: In this context, MERS stands forMiddle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, a virus from the coronavirus family that was first mentioned in 2012, which can cause serious respiratory infections, pneumonia and kidney failure in humans)were effective so we combined both groups of drugs“Atipornwanich said. After the medication had been administered, the patient would have recovered quickly, the doctor continued.
The combination therapy is now to be tested further in the laboratoryThai authorities said. So far, 147 coronavirus infections are known in Thailand.
