The new coronavirus has made its way all around the world, and doctors are right now searching for a new drug in order to treat the ill and stop the spread as soon as possible. The virus as killed more than 3,800 people since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December.
How dangerous is COVID-19?
The virus takes part in the same family as the coronaviruses, which caused the other two outbreaks, the severe acute respiratory syndrome, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome. But this new one may be more infectious than the others. The number of confirmed cases of the new virus, called COVID-19, is more than 100,000. The combined cases for SARS and MERS were 10.600.
Did they find a way to help the people infected?
People are relying on quarantines in order to try to keep things under control. It was good enough to stop SARS in 2004. But this new virus might require more than that. In China, there are about 300 clinical trials in works right now, with interferons, stem cells, and traditional Chinese medicines (acupuncture). But this is not all. They want to develop drugs in order to treat infections, and also vaccines that can prevent them. But creating a new drug can take decades. We don’t have that much time. But they did find a way to help patients. They want to use the medicines that combated HIV or hepatitis C.
Karla Satchell, from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, stated: “Repurposing drugs is absolutely the best thing that could happen right now. Those drugs exist. They’ve been produced. They’ve been tested in patients.” They represent a great way to start treating the new coronavirus disease.