Thailand Finds Success in Treating Coronavirus Using ‘Drug Cocktail’

In the midst medical crisis to contain Coronavirus, there is some ray of hope coming in from Thailand. As doctors in Thailand have been successful in treating severe cases of the new coronavirus by a combination of medications for flu and HIV. The initial results of the treatment are showing vast improvement within 48 hours, after applying the treatment.

The physicians working in the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok have confirmed that a new approach for treating and containing coronavirus is showing positive results as the condition of several patients under their care, including an elderly Chinese woman from Wuhan, who have tested positive for the coronavirus for last 10 days.

The drug developed for the treatment is a cocktail or mixture of anti-HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, which is combined with flu drug oseltamivir, and then administered to patients in large doses.

Dr. Kriangska Atipornwanich, Lung Specialist at Rajavithi Hospital has informed media, “This is not the cure, but the patient’s condition has vastly improved. From testing positive for 10 days under our care, after applying this combination of medicine the test result became negative within 48 hours”.

Atipornwanich, also added, “The outlook is good but we still have to do more study to determine that this can be a standard treatment.”

Seeing the improvement in Thailand, Health officials in China have already started administering HIV and flu drugs to fight the virus. The combination of the three medicines together in a cocktail seemed to improve the treatment.

Another Doctor in the Rajavithi Hospital has said that a similar approach in one patient has also resulted in the appearance of some allergic reaction, but another patient has shown improvement.

Somsak Akkslim, Director General of the Medical Services Department in Thailand said, “We have been following international practices, but the doctor increased the dosage of one of the drugs”, referring to the flu medicine Oseltamivir.

Thailand has so far recorded 19 cases of coronavirus in their natives. Out of these 19 Thai patients, 8have been recovered and discharged for home, while 11 patients are still under treatment in hospitals.

Somsak Akkslim has informed that the country’s health ministry will meet today to discuss the improvement of the elderly Chinese lady who has recovered from severe Coronavirus attack, but also said, that it is still too soon to say that this approach can be applied to all cases. He said adding, “Initially we will apply this approach only to severe cases”.

So far the coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 360 people and infected more than 17,200 across the world, as it continues to spread beyond the borders of China. The virus has been confirmed in more than 25 countries of the world, since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. More than 60 million people remain under lockdown in many Chinese cities as international researchers are in the race to develop a vaccine and halt the spread of the deadly ‘Coronavirus’.