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Scientists have begun testing existing and experimental therapies to help people cope with the coronavirus, KFOR reports.
What’s going on:
- The coronavirus and COVID-19 doesn’t have any vaccine right now. Existing and new therapies are being used to test for treatment.
- The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation told KFOR that the drug chloroquine phosphate is a drug that’s been used for more than 50 years to fight malaria.
- Dr. Judith James, vice president of clinical affairs at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, told KFOR: “It’s also been shown to be very effective in treating patients who have autoimmune diseases like lupus. We use it to treat hundreds of lupus patients at OMRF.”
- James said: “When malaria gets inside a cell, if you change the pH with a drug like chloroquine phosphate, the malaria can’t live. The same goes for a virus like COVID-19. If you change the pH, the virus cannot assemble, and if it can’t assemble, it can’t infect you.”
Not so fast
- Rumors of the drug as a cure popped up in March when a WhatsApp voice message in Nigeria claimed the drug could be a cure for COVID-19, according to AFP.
- The World Health Organization said in a statement back in February that the drug isn’t a confirmed cure for the coronavirus and definitely needs more testing.
- The statement came from Janet Diaz, the head of clinical care for WHO’s emergency program.
“At this moment in time there is no proven effective treatment for COVID-19 so that is clear at this moment in time. However there are ongoing clinical trials being done in China at this moment as well. The two that we’ve already discussed are testing the priority therapeutics that were prioritized by the WHO R&D blueprints and that includes lopinavir and ritonavir as well as remdesivir. For chloroquine there is no proof that that is an effective treatment at this time. We recommend that therapeutics be tested under ethically approved clinical trials to show efficacy and safety.”