Coronavirus: Anti-HIV drugs may be used in developing a cure

The numbers of people who are suffering from rampant coronavirus are continuing to skyrocket and prompting everyone to be extra cautious when outside. A new report reveals that a cure may be found in the form of repurposed HIV/AIDS drugs.

Express reports that the virus, having originated in Wuhan, China, has now affected thousands of people in the country and is spreading to the rest of the world. The number of fatalities recorded has also skyrocketed as well, with 132 people dying from this new strain of the coronavirus. This has health officials all over the world working harder to find or develop a cure, even including the existing drugs in the market. Among those options came in the form of two drugs known as lopinavir and ritonavir, and both of which are used to treat patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.

According to Warsaw Medical University Professor Dr. Ernest Kuchar, the two drugs would become a breakthrough in the epidemic, which has spread to other countries including the United States, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Nepal, Canada, Vietnam, France, Malaysia, the UAE, Cambodia, Macau, and Germany. Neighboring countries with China, such as Mongolia, have been reported to close border crossings to prevent the spread of the virus. Although the two drugs may offer some hope to the patients who are infected, Dr. Kuchar said that clinical trials with patients still need to be done in order to test the effectiveness.

The local authorities in Wuhan have also placed the city on total lockdown, preventing anyone from entering or leaving so as not to spread the virus even further.

All the same, scientists all over are working harder to try and develop a vaccine to finally put an end to the pandemic once and for all. The downside to this is that it may take a year to develop a vaccine for this strain of coronavirus. Five teams of scientists under Johnson & Johnson have already begun trying to develop a drug for the pandemic for a few weeks now and have expressed confidence that they can be able to create a cure. Paul Stoffels, the Chief Scientific Officer said, “I’m very worried that this could become a global pandemic. That’s why we started working on this vaccine two weeks ago, we have to be prepared that this is going to become a global crisis.”

But he warned that a vaccine for the coronavirus might take up to a year to develop. Still, he expressed hope that there would be some success in a few weeks’ time.