Researchers claim malaria meds could treat Covid-19

While scientists across the world are looking for a vaccine and treatment against Covid-19, a group of French researchers claim that malaria medication might be the answer.

The group published a paper in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents a month ago, which stated that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were tested on a few dozen patients with Covid-19 with positive results.

Part of the team who published the report was Professor Didier Raoult, Director of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Marseilles, a French biologist and considered a world specialist in infectious diseases.

Read the report here.

This week professor Raoult said they were able to compare the negativation of viral carriage in patients who followed the protocol, with patients who did not receive the treatment. Those who did not use hydroxychloroquine were still 90% carriers of the virus after six days, while only 25% of patients who received the treatment remained positive.

Business Insider reported that chloroquine is a widely prescribed anti-malaria pill that was first approved in the US in 1949. If this proves true and clinical data can confirm the biological results, it will become the cheapest and easiest way to treat and prevent Covid-19.

The medication is well-known, cheap and easy to produce and known to reduce fever and inflammation.

According to the BBC, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that thus far there is no definitive evidence of its effectiveness, but it is part of the continuing trials.

“To know which therapies could work to treat the viral infection, we need to undertake clinical trials to gain the full evidence to know whether they work or not,” says prof Trudie Lang, director of The Global Health Network at Oxford University.

Interest in the drug had already been gaining traction online.

Read more here.

U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference earlier today during which he said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) swiftly reacted and immediately approved the use of the malaria drugs in the fight against Covid-19.

However, the FDA denied this statement but confirmed that studies were underway to see whether chloroquine could be effective in the treatment of Covid-19.

It also said it has been directed by Trump to set up a large clinical trial to investigate the drug.

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