With a ban on non-U.S. citizens and permanent residents entering the country within 14 days of having been in China going into effect, China Eastern has announced a suspension of its U.S. flights.
Coronavirus has claimed lives, infected many, and led to worldwide panic and turmoil in markets. If we’re looking for a bit of good news, though, Thailand may be seeing some success treating the virus with a mixture of anti-flu and anti-viral drugs.
A Chinese woman infected with the new coronavirus showed a dramatic improvement after she was treated with a cocktail of anti-virals used to treat flu and HIV, Thailand’s health ministry said Sunday.
The 71-year-old patient tested negative for the virus 48 hours after Thai doctors administered the combination, doctor Kriengsak Attipornwanich said during the ministry’s daily press briefing.
The woman was able to sit up within 12 hours and lab results showed the virus gone within 48 hours.
These results still need to be validated. Would she have recovered on her own? Were these drugs what drove the recovery? Do we know if this specific combination is needed? Nonetheless it’s a reason to be hopeful.
Of 19 confirmed coronavirus cases in Thailand, 8 people have recovered and 11 remain hospitalized. There are over 300 confirmed deaths from the virus in China, though the number could be higher due to longstanding practice regarding how China records cause of death (they record final cause of death only).
Some people in Thailand made similar claims about a treatment for SARS ( and other conditions)….turned out to be rubbish. I won’t be holding my breathe ( no pun intended) for the veracity of this to be shown.
One patient is not exactly a controlled experiment. This is the epitome of jumping to conclusions, especially when that lone data point is coming from Thailand.
What other said above. I’m sure China will be happy to try out the same treatment on their own flu victims. If the anti-viral actually works, we should know within the next week or so.
China was the first to administer a flu-fighting and HIV-fighting antiviral combination against this Wuhan coronavirus. Thailand had some physicians do the same after China had already done it this time.
How widely effective is this approach? Uncertain.
@GGUWonder. I just read that as well. The Thai doctors claim that they doubled the dosage of the Chinese and the results were thus effective. I am skeptical but let’s see. Might be an interesting breakthrough for the regular flu as well?
to treat flu and HIV
well if the theories that the virus had part of the aids genome inserted are true, I suppose this is no surprise.
Kind of jumping the gun with this. Just so you know they have discovered the virus is mutating. Who knows what will happen, but until stuff is scientifically validated its little more than tabloid gossip.
I’d file this under “fog of war.” Maybe that treatment is meaningful, but probably not. More meaningful is that fact that the virus isn’t infecting very many people outside of Wuhan. Even in other Chinese cities. Why? That’s obviously “the big story” here, and there are few media stories about it (maybe because nobody knows why). If the virus doesn’t spread that easily, this won’t be a pandemic.
AA seems to believe issues are ongoing. They’re now zeroing out Hong Kong as well, and have issued wavers for travel to/from/via Hong Kong.