Health Experts, Elon Musk Eye A Malaria Drug As A Possible Coronavirus Cure

With the Coronavirus or COVID-19 spreading vastly and rapidly, the search for finding drugs that can prevent or cure the virus has been the top priority. Though one particular drug seems to have been overlooked despite some encouraging results.

This drug is called 'Chloroquine'

Chloroquine is an anti-malaria drug that is prescribed by many all over the world and was first approved in the United States in 1949.

Scientists have performed laboratory research and some anecdotal reports about using the malaria drug for people with the virus, and have shown some promising results that this drug could actually work to prevent, cure and fight the COVID-19.

By far the best out of any treatment

A lot of medical and drug companies have pushed themselves into research o try and develop next-gen therapeutics and medication, the one drug that shines the most is Chloroquine. According to Business Insider, It is by far the cheapest, simple and extensible kind of treatment, though there is not enough data yet to be seen in any form of a clinical trial.

On February 15, in a paper that was published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, French researchers wrote that "If clinical data confirm the biological results, the novel coronavirus-associated disease will have become one of the simplest and cheapest to treat and prevent among infectious respiratory diseases."

Clinical data seem to land on a positive note

One of the clinical trials that have been going on worldwide with regards to testing Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to at least a dozen of Coronavirus patients in France, is led by Didier Raoult, an infectious disease expert and a member of the three authors that wrote the published paper.

He has said that Chloroquine has actually shortened the period of time that patients with the Coronavirus are infectious. This shows that early research studies and reports of Raoult's trial have been pretty much positive.

According to Medscape, combining this with the antibiotic azithromycin has shown to reduce viral load in these virus patients. It does a great job of performing and helps battle infections in the lungs where Coronavirus can occur and can potentially play a vital role in fighting COVID-19.

Overlooked

A biotech analyst from Raymond James, Steven Seedhouse had recently analyzed a bunch of top drugs that are being tested for the Coronavirus. This includes Kaletra, Chloroquine, Remdesivir, and some sort of HIV drug. Though Seedhouse said that Chloroquine is just as good as any treatment option for the novel Coronavirus.

Other drugs include remdesivir which is an antiviral type of drug that is currently being developed biotech giant, Gilead Sciences. The World Health Organization even calls it "the most promising candidate" for fighting the Coronavirus.

Seedhouse has also stated that. "If we had to pick one of the three at this point that actually seems most likely to have the biggest impact on treating COVID-19 in the coming months/years, it would be chloroquine."

Even Tesla CEO, Elon Musk have noticed how effective Chloroquine is and took it to Twitter to share his thoughts.