As mentioned yesterday, one ray of hope in all of the COVID-19 news is that we have an existing arsenal of known anti-viral drugs, and other approved drugs which can be repurposed. However, this...
As mentioned yesterday, one ray of hope in all of the COVID-19 news is that we have an existing arsenal of known anti-viral drugs, and other approved drugs which can be repurposed.
However, this news doesn't mean we can all go party in the streets. As with Tamiflu, drugs that reduce viral replication aren't complete cures, and don't repair the damage from existing infection. Treatment has to begin early.
Some of these drugs are quite toxic, operating by blocking important signaling receptors on cell surfaces, or interrupting metabolism. Because viruses use existing cellular mechanisms to replicate, it's always been difficult to stop them without dire effects on the host, more like cancer chemotherapy than antibiotics. Some anti-virals are not going to be useful at all for medically fragile or elderly people.
Favipiravir is useful because RNA viruses try to use it and can't replicate with the misshapen molecule, but mammalian cells don't. Japan has stockpiles of favipiravir for pandemic influenza. There aren't any major papers with COVID-19 efficacy statistics in English yet.
If you're interested in longform, ACS has continuing updates here.
So keep on with known effective isolation and sanitation - there's an end in sight, but no specific timeline and we're not there yet.
As mentioned yesterday, one ray of hope in all of the COVID-19 news is that we have an existing arsenal of known anti-viral drugs, and other approved drugs which can be repurposed.
However, this news doesn't mean we can all go party in the streets. As with Tamiflu, drugs that reduce viral replication aren't complete cures, and don't repair the damage from existing infection. Treatment has to begin early.
Some of these drugs are quite toxic, operating by blocking important signaling receptors on cell surfaces, or interrupting metabolism. Because viruses use existing cellular mechanisms to replicate, it's always been difficult to stop them without dire effects on the host, more like cancer chemotherapy than antibiotics. Some anti-virals are not going to be useful at all for medically fragile or elderly people.
Favipiravir is useful because RNA viruses try to use it and can't replicate with the misshapen molecule, but mammalian cells don't. Japan has stockpiles of favipiravir for pandemic influenza. There aren't any major papers with COVID-19 efficacy statistics in English yet.
If you're interested in longform, ACS has continuing updates here.
So keep on with known effective isolation and sanitation - there's an end in sight, but no specific timeline and we're not there yet.