The Ongoing Fight Against Covid 19 And New Drugs

The Ongoing Fight Against Covid 19 And New Drugs.

Most of the research during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been towards producing reliable and effective vaccines. Some research though has been directed towards finding solutions to effectively treat the disease once people have caught it.

So far during the ongoing pandemic over 170 million people around the world have been infected with the potentially deadly virus. Many potential treatments have come and gone during the battle so far though.

One of the latest drugs to be discarded is AZD7442 and AstraZeneca recently announced the: “results from the STORM CHASER trial assessing the safety and efficacy of AZD7442, a long-acting antibody (LAAB) combination, for the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 in participants recently exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“The trial did not meet the primary endpoint of post-exposure prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 with AZD7442 compared to placebo.” Sadly this drug failed to reduce symptoms of coronavirus in a significant manner.

Emilio Alegre, a pharmacist at the University Hospital of Puerto Real and member of the drug evaluation group of the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy speaking of the coronavirus commented that: “We know very little about the disease and this makes it very difficult to design therapeutics,”

“One year of experience is too little. Moreover, you have to take into account that the immune system is quite effective against the virus, most people pass the disease without pain or glory”.

Recently though hydroxychloroquine has made it into the headlines again. The malaria drug which former president Donald Trump had previously hailed as a miracle cure for the coronavirus could increase Covid survival rates by nearly 200 per cent.

Donald Trump had previously been condemned after he hailed a malaria drug as a possible coronavirus treatment, but scientists have now discovered that this drug could increase survival rates by a staggering amount.

As part of a new study scientists have discovered that for ventilated patients suffering from severe Covid, when they are given a high dose of both hydroxychloroquine and zinc, the chance of survival could increase amazingly.

Last year in March Trump had been taking the drug in a bid to prevent him from catching the potentially deadly virus. He was not using it as a treatment though. Later that year in October he did eventually catch coronavirus although he was not treated with this medication.

Trump had previously claimed that hydroxy was a miracle treatment for the coronavirus and numerous scientists hit back at him for making these claims.