Antiviral Therapy

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is also termed as the novel coronavirus and diligently associated with the SARS virus. The Ministry of Science and Technology from the People's Republic of China declared three potential antiviral medicines suitable for treating COVID-19. Those three medicines are, namely, Favilavir, Chloroquine phosphate and Remdesivir. A clinical trial was conducted to test the efficacy of those three drugs, and the results proved out that out of the tree medicines above only Favilavir is effective in treating the patients with novel coronavirus. The remaining two drugs were effective in treating Malaria.

Likewise, a study carried out in the United States by the National Institute of Health proved that the remdesivir is effective in treating the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which is also a type of coronavirus that was transmitted from monkeys. The drug remdesivir was also used in United States for treating the patients with COVID-19. There has been a proposal to use the combination of protease inhibitors lopinavir-ritonavir for treating the patients affected by COVID-19. It is also evident that remdesivir was effective in treating the patients who were infected with Ebola virus. Per this evidence, China has already started testing the efficacy of remdesivir in treating the patients with COVID-19, especially in Wuhan, where the outbreak occurred. Chloroquine, which is an existing drug being used in treating malaria cases, was given to more than 100 patients who were affected with novel coronavirus to test its efficacy.

A multicentric study was conducted in China to test the effectiveness of remdesivir in treating the patients with COVID-19. Thus, the results of the clinical trial proved that remdesivir had considerably acceptable level of efficacy for treating the patients with COVID-19. Therefore, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China decided to include remdesivir in the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are existing anti-malaria drugs also given to more than 30patients infected with COVID-19 in Guangdong province and Hunan province to test their effectiveness and efficacy. Thus, the results of the clinical trial showed that the patients who were given chloroquine had a significant reduction in their body temperature. The clinical trial also showed better recovery among the patients who were given chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Hydroxychloroquine treatment is significantly associated with viral load reduction as well as disappearance in COVID-19 patients. Further, the outcome is reinforced by azithromycin. The role of lopinavir and ritonavir in the treatment of COVID-19 is uncertain. A potential benefit was suggested by preclinical data, but additional data has failed to confirm it. Tocilizumab is an immunomodulating agent used as adjunct therapy in some protocols based on a theoretical mechanism and limited preliminary data.