Find a cure for Covid-19 twice as fast

By combining three different drugs, the trial of Hong Kong doctors showed that the duration of Covid-19 treatment was reduced by almost half.

It has been many months since the outbreak of Covid-19, and health experts have also found more ways to treat it. Certain viral suppressants, such as Remdesivir, have been licensed to treat Covid-19, with an average of 11-15 days to clear the virus.

However, doctors in Hong Kong are experimenting with a combination of three drugs to speed up the treatment process. In a study published in The Lancet medical journal, a research team at the University of Hong Kong showed that the combination could reduce treatment time by almost half.

The patient was hospitalized for Covid-19 in China. (Photo: Xinhua News Agency)

The three drugs used in this study include: interferon beta-1b, lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin. In particular, lopinavir-ritonavir is an antiviral drug used for HIV patients, often sold under the name Kaletra. Ribavirin is an antiviral drug used to treat hepatitis C, while interferon beta-1b is an antiviral drug.

The team separated 127 Covid-19 patients into two groups, of which 86 were given a combination of three drugs, while 41 belonged to the Kaletra control group. The patients had symptoms of the disease, some of them had to intervene with ventilators.

According to data in the study, the combined drug group recovered after 7 days on average, while the control group needed 12 days. Some symptoms such as dizziness and diarrhea appear on both groups.

Interestingly, patients who took the combination drug said they felt better earlier. After about 4 days they started to stop showing symptoms, while for the control group this time was 8 days. No patients died during treatment.

"Early treatment by combining a number of effective antiviral drugs with Covid-19 because the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus peaked around the time of symptom onset," the team concluded.

Remdesivir has been licensed by the US and Japan to treat Covid-19. (Photo: Reuters)

"This study is very novel because it shows that remdesivir is not the only effective drug but also many other options. The drugs all prove safety," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of the University of California, San Francisco. Francisco told CNN.

Because remdesivir has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this drug is like the only "silver bullet" for treating Covid-19 in the United States. Mr. Peter Chin-Hong said that the study of the University of Hong Kong offers another option when doctors do not have this "silver bullet" to treat patients.

"With Covid-19 we don't have a lot of time. This is one of the treatment options by using old drugs to treat new diseases. We don't have time to use drugs rationally in times of crisis." panic, " explained Peter Chin-Hong.

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