A malaria drug that has been on the market since the 1930s appears to be effective against the symptoms of the new corona virus.
Chinese researchers gave more than a hundred patients in ten hospitals in China a treatment with chloroquine. They recovered faster than patients who did not receive the anti-malarial agent. For example, their fever decreased more often and their lung function improved more. Moreover, there were no side effects, writes Xinhua State Press Agency.
That chloroquine works against coronaviruses was already discovered in 2004 by Belgian researchers. That was just after the SARS epidemic. SARS is also a corona virus. During laboratory tests, the drug was found to work antivirally, but a human study was not performed at that time because there were no more SARS patients.
Cheap and easy to make
According to professor Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven), chloroquine can easily be produced in large quantities. “We hope that chloroquine, partly because it is very cheap, can have an worldwide impact on the antiviral treatment of patients with this new corona virus.”
The Chinese researchers hope that the drug will be included in the treatment protocols and that more patients will receive the experimental treatment.
A large study, published earlier today, shows that in a small proportion of corona cases, the condition of the sick is serious or critical. The death rate is 2.3 percent. The disease is mild for four out of five patients.
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