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Two antiviral drugs and one immune system booster have helped patients recover quickly from coronavirus infections.
The combination was discovered by a team of doctors in Hong Kong, CNN reports.
Dr. Kwok-Yung Yuen at Hong Kong University and colleagues tested HIV drug combination of Ritonavir-Lopanivir, a general antiviral drug Ribavirin and multiple sclerosis drug Beta Interferon.
In the study published by Lancet Medical Journal, patients who had mild to moderate coronavirus symptoms were treated and got well.
Yuen and other researchers gave some COVID-19 patients only the HIV mixture, Ritonavir-Lopanivir.
They all tested negative after twelve days.
Others were randomly given the same mixture, often sold under the brand name Kaletra, plus Ribavirin and injections of Beta Interferon.
Those who got the cocktail felt better within four days after one week of treatment.
“Early triple antiviral therapy was safe and superior to Lopinavir-Ritonavir alone in alleviating symptoms and shortening the duration of viral shedding and hospital stay in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” the team wrote.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, who is treating coronavirus patients at the University of California in San Francisco, hailed the revelation.
Chin-Hong added that the drugs used in the combination have a track record of safety and are easily available.
“This study is really refreshing because it tells us remdesivir isn’t the only game in town and maybe there are other options around. In COVID-19, we don’t have the luxury of time,” he noted.
“This is one of the treatment options where we are teaching old drugs, new tricks. We don’t have the time to take a drug rationally from beginning to end because we have a crisis right now. We have to make do with what we have.”
Currently, the only authorized treatment globally is Remdesivir.
The drug shortens the duration of the disease but is limited in supply.
The first-class monarch said this after Madagascar’s breakthrough on coronavirus.
