Soaliha IqbalThe COVID-19 panic that is sweeping across Australia is becoming more and more pronounced as cases sky rocket and even seemingly untouchable celebrities like Tom Hanks and Idris Elba are getting infected.
Australia are only weeks behind Italy. Italy’s numbers continue to sore, and using current data of:
27980 confirmed cases
2158 reported deaths
Italy have a current Covid19 fatality rate of: 7.7%Stay. The. Fuck. Home.
Close. The. Schools. Now. #Lockdownaustralia #COVID19au pic.twitter.com/ZSYugu0svf— Amy Thunig (@AmyThunig) March 16, 2020
But, fear not (or fear a little bit, but), there’s some good news regarding the fight against coronavirus!
Researches told news.com.au today that they may have found a treatment to the virus, and they’re looking to get patient trials by end of the month.
University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David said there are two drugs that defeated the virus in a test tube, and one of them was used on the first few coronavirus patients, yielding positive results with full recoveries.
Another scientiest, Professor Paterson, said the drug was a “potentially effective treatment” and maybe even a “cure,” because the virus actually disappeared once treated with the drugs.
Great social distancing being practiced on Melbourne public transport this morning. Everyone giving each other space. #SocialDistancing #COVID19au pic.twitter.com/1vpF1vx4Dz
— Andy Burke (@pandaburke) March 16, 2020
“What we want to do at the moment is a large clinical trial across Australia, looking at 50 hospitals, and what we’re going to compare is one drug, versus another drug, versus the combination of the two drugs,” Proffesor Paterson told news.com.au.
The drugs in question are a HIV drug called lopinavir/ritonavir, and cloroquine – a drug that was once used to combat malaria before the disease became resistant.
Both these drugs are available in on Australian shelves already.
Prof Paterson mentioned that the HIV drug was initially used on Chinese patients who showed their doctors information online about how the coronavirus was being treated overseas, and those patients all did extremely well when placed on that drug.
Now, we can’t jump to conclusions shouting about a cure that doesn’t exist yet – but, things are looking pretty good for the patients that have been on these drugs, which is reassuring. Now we just have to wait and see how the patient trials go.
