Thai doctors tout improvement with HIV and flu drugs
Thai doctors announced that a 71-year-old patient suffering from coronavirus for 10 days showed rapid improvement after being administered a cocktail of HIV and flu drugs.
The doctors decided to use oseltamivir (often sold as tamiflu and was used to treat SARS), as well as lopinavir and ritonavir, two AIDS drugs.
Doctors in China have also been using the combination because of the structural similarities between HIV and coronavirus. It's a great sign that even if the virus turns into a global pandemic, the repercussions of the outbreak could be much less severe.
Separately, the drug remdesivir -- which is not yet approved in the US -- was given to Chinese authorities to conduct trials on patients. A US case in New England was also treated with the drug and was said to experience improvement and that "all symptoms have resolved with the exception of his cough, which is decreasing in severity," according to researchers.
