A French research professor has reported a successful trial of a new treatment for Covid-19 which has suggested it can stop the virus from being contagious in six days.
Professor Didier Raoult, an infectious disease specialist, has been tasked by the French government to research possible treatments for Covid-19.
Professor Raoult offered treatment to 24 patients in southeast France who were among the first to contract the illness, and found that they had seen a rapid and effective speeding up of their healing process, and a sharp decrease in the amount of time they remained contagious.
The drug chloroquine, marketed as Plaquenil, is normally an anti-malarial drug. Plaquenil has also been used for decades for autoimmune disorders such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.
“We were able to ascertain that patients who had not received Plaquenil (the drug containing hydroxychloroquine) were still contagious after six days, but of those that had received Plaquenil, after six days, only 25% were still contagious.”
A new U.S. study from researchers at Stanford, University of Alabama, and the National Academy of Sciences concurs with the study from France. Chloroquine is inexpensive and widely available, and is also viewed as widely safe for adults, children and pregnant mothers.
“Use of chloroquine (tablets) is showing favorable outcomes in humans infected with Coronavirus including faster time to recovery and shorter hospital stay…
So far, no country – nor the World Health Organisation (WHO) – has officially published treatment measures against Covid-19, but in China and South Korea, guidelines already outline the use of chloroquine as an “effective treatment”, the study report said.
Sources from France include Connexion, and Huffington Post in France. You can translate the HuffPo to English via Google, and thanks to Mireille D. for the HuffPo link.