A global hunt is on for a cure for Covid-19. US President Donald Trump, however, appears to put the cart before the horse with his off-the-cuff remarks about a miracle cure for coronavirus infection.
New Delhi, May 5:
Till a couple of weeks ago, hydroxycholoroquine was the most-talked about answer to the novel coronavirus pandemic. US President Donald Trump was its self-appointed champion. But no, his health advisers did not think that the anti-malarial medicine was some miracle cure for Covid-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus.
Since the US has a big influence on the world, many countries wanted to import hydroxychloroquine from exporters like India. The Narendra Modi government had imposed a ban on its export in March. Under international pressure that attempted to paint India as taking an anti-humanitarian stand, the government lifted the ban on the export of the drug.
Later, clinical researches showed that hydroxychloroquine was not the miracle medicine that doctors have been asking for to treat and cure Covid-19 patients. It is still used in combination with other drugs but largely because there are only a few other alternatives.
Like doctors and scientists, Donald Trump was also on the hunt for a miracle cure for Covid-19. He flip-flopped through April, once even wildly suggesting administering injections of disinfectant or bombarding patients with ultra-violet rays as treatment for Covid-19.
Begin May, and Trump fired away another drug suggestion for treatment of Covid-19, although with subdued enthusiasm compared to his hydroxychloroquine push. This time, he was more nuanced.
Trump suggested a drug called remdesivir for treatment of Covid-19 calling it “a hot thing” and “a very promising situation”. Remdesivir is already being used cautiously.
He said, “I’m pleased to announce that Gilead now has an EUA (emergency use authorisation) from the FDA (Food and Drug Administartion) for remdesivir. And you know what that is because that’s been the hot thing also in the papers and in the media for the last little while. [It is] an important treatment for hospitalized coronavirus patients And it’s – it’s really a very promising situation.”
Gilead Sciences that Trump referred to is a US pharmaceutical company that developed remdesivir as GS-5734. Remdesivir had been developed to treat Ebola infections. But it was not found to be very effective against the Ebola virus.
When the SARS outbreak took place in 2002, the drug was used and found to be effective. It was effective even during the MERS outbreak. The usage had followed success in laboratory tests.
SARS outbreak had occurred in Hong Kong and China. It was still fresh in Chinese memory when the SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus outbreak took place in Wuhan late last year. China used the drug remdesivir as an experimental treatment. It was used only in severe cases of Covid-19 and on patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU).
China was conservative in using this drug on Covid-19 patients. Reports suggest that China became optimistic about the drug only towards the end of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, and only after some positive results were recorded in the US. But there were not enough number of new patients.
The National Institute for Allergy and Infection Diseases (NIAID) of the US funded a randomized clinical trial of remdesivir in April. A total of 1,063 patients were selected for the trial. They were treated with remdesivir and a placebo (a pill with no therapeutic value).
The trial was stopped — prematurely, some health experts said — after 10 days. And, on April 29, the NIAID announced at a White House press conference in presence of Trump that remdesivir was a success as it reduced recovery rate by over 30 per cent and mortality rate by close to four per cent.
These are the noteworthy two clinical researches on treatment of Covid-19. And, these experiments don’t suggest that remdesivir is a miracle cure for Covid-19. Health experts have called for more research before accepting remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19.
In contrast, plasma therapy has shown better results in India and elsewhere. It remains the first choice of treatment for coronavirus infection in all researches.
Still Indian government and health experts from across the world have refrained from recommending it as a standard treatment protocol for Covid-19 in the absence of large data pool of research.
Trump’s suggestion on remdesivir can potentially derail the global fight against Covid-19 as happened for about four weeks with hydroxychloroquine.
There is another drug, an oral pill, is a subject of attention. Chinese scientist Chen Wei, working with People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) medical research wing, and her team developed an oral vaccine that she took in mid-March. She is reported in media reports not to have contracted novel coronavirus infection till date.
