In an article from the International Journal of Surgery, they announce that the Covid-19 outbreak has been declared a “global health emergency” by the World Health Organization. This has led to an “all hands on deck” mentality and many countries are mobilizing large sums of money towards the efforts of containing this virus. Companies based in the United States have launched Covid-19 test kits, the UK has donated to research that is aiming to find a vaccine, and the EU has also been a large financial donor for research. While it is encouraging to see so many countries putting in collective efforts, the number of new cases are still rising. The US has put a lockdown on entry into the country for those who have traveled to high risk areas and China is debating on whether or not to close their border completely. The financial security of China hangs in the balance of this decision.
Currently, there is still no effective treatment for Covid-19. In China, some medical professionals are prescribing neurominadase inhibitors to infected individuals. This course of treatment is commonly seen in treating influenza and may be more commonly recognized as the antiviral, “Tamiflu”. However, they have no evidence that this course of action is effective. Regardless, the mortality rate remains relatively low around 3%. This is much lower than mortality rate of MERS and SARS, very similar viruses, that have mortality rates up to 34.4%.
A Life Sciences article comments on Covid-19 compared to MERS and SARS, which are known to be more aggressive forms of the coronavirus. There are current studies being conducted that are examining Covid-19’s RdRp mechanisms and how it can be targeted using antivirals that are used to treat similar RNA viruses. After sequencing the genome of Covid-19, they discovered that over 97% of Covid-19’s RdRp is identical to that of SARS HCoV. This knowledge is a huge step forward in the possibilities of effective treatments against Covid-19. It would be much more efficient to find preexisting medications to treat this strain instead of having to develop something new amidst this epidemic. This study was able to conclude that preexisting medications (Sofosbuvir, Ribavirin, and Remdisivir) may have promising results in treating the newly emerged strain of coronavirus by blocking the function of the viruses RdRp. However, further research needs to be done to determine if a combination of these drugs could potentially stop the emergence of new Covid-19 infections.
Kinsey's Blog 