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On a positive note, we had the first case of COVID-19 in Columbia announced yesterday. A 60 year old who caught it from travel.

Well... yesterday we had the first case in columbia. He was released home yesterday for self-quarantine. He died today. So now we no longer have any cases of COVID-19 in columbia.

High-five!

Dark.
So proud.

Yep. Schitt's starting to get serious.
Hang in there guys...

Well, if he's been sleeping with a co-worker that had it all day, I'd say that's an odds on favorite.

Seriously though, I hope it works out ok.

Dammit, I wanna believe this is true Puddin’.
So far, haven’t found anything to support it...

Need to see it from a major news source before I celebrate.
Fingers crossed...

If you don't like the flavor you could always try doing an enema.

the data with the malaria drug came out of research in china. I'd take that with a grain of salt or five.
China has never had a great track record on research accuracy. Good results seem to happen when you want them. We had a test being run in China last year. Results came back so good that we couldn't use them. Ridiculous numbers.

Obviously that's just anecdotal. but I'm not going to hold my breath yet

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See this "money shot" quote from page 11 of the PDF I mention above. Note that "post-inclusion" means "after drugs began to be administered":

"At day6 post-inclusion, 100% of patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination were virologicaly cured comparing with 57.1% in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine only, and 12.5% in the control group (p<0.001)."

Hydroxychloroquine is the antimalarial in use since 1955, and azithromycin is the stuff in common "Z-Pak" 5-day antibiotics (brand name Zithromax). Both are now patent-free (I believe azithromycin lost its patent a few years ago, if I remember right).

Both are in extremely widespread use worldwide and have been for years.

If this remarkable level of performance holds in larger trials, we've seemingly got a cure that requires no safety testing period and can be rolled out worldwide immediately and pennies per dose.

PDF direct URL:

https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Hydroxychloroquine_final_DOI_IJAA.pdf
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Hope you are right though Pudding. Right now we are just implementing a system to just report the cases.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-guidance-management-patients.html

has a small section on investigational theraputics


Edit - Looks like Trump has been watching Tucker Carlson. I so hope it's true..... hes just floated out so many other inaccuracies on this its hard to believe. Please be right. (faith and hope is an odd thing)

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Look at the last chart in the PDF, it's the last thing in the entire document, right at the bottom of the last page.

Note that "patients with PCR-positive samples" on the vertical axis essentially means "patients with detectable COVID-19 still in their bodies".

That chart says it all. Look at that green line!
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Annnnnnnnnd Trump's going to authorize widespread use of it against COVID-19 "almost immediately", awesome!

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fda-experimental-drugs-coronavirus

izonfire, there's your major media confirmation, and presidential confirmation too! Of wide rollout at least, if not confirmation of effectiveness yet.

Let's hope the "100% cure" results of the study hold in the wider population! We're about to find out!
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Hope so. I also remember 4 million tests by a couple fridays ago and an imminent vax. But I truly hope so and hope it works. Unfortunately I still need to act as if it wont.

This study was conducted in southern France by one of the world's top infectious disease researchers, not in China.

China merely reported early success with this same drug, that led the French team to try it.


Yup. Be cautiously happy about this, but ACT as if it doesn't exist, for now anyway.

Hope for the best, but keep planning for the worst, for the moment. Very wise.
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Interesting. I dug a little into the research papers leading up to that. Seems like it inhibits viral replication. The Zika papers focused on it because that particular antibiotic can move into the amniotic fluid/and gather in fetal brain tissue at concentrations they were looking for. The tests themselves are all in cell culture, obviously, and none of them discuss the mechanism at which it might block viral replication (there are other referenced papers of the referenced papers if I want to dig back far enough, but I'm out of time). It's interesting. May actually do something.

I agree on the rebound. Prolly not to where it was for quite awhile since it was inflated anyway. I am an optimist although I may not always show it.

No matter what happens on this "cure" we blew it. Time is important and we were flat footed despite all the warnings. If not this one the next but all take time to some degree. We are doing what we are doing based on what we expect in days or weeks rather than months.

This was just updated yesterday which is an eternity LOL I pulled this from a system commonly used for treatment protocols that is updated daily. This is just a snippet.


Investigational agents — A number of investigational agents are being explored for antiviral treatment of COVID-19, and enrollment in clinical trials should be discussed with patients or their proxies. A registry of international clinical trials can be found on the WHO website and at clinicaltrials.gov.

Certain investigational agents have been described in observational series or are being used anecdotally based on in vitro or extrapolated evidence. It is important to acknowledge that there are no controlled data supporting the use of any of these agents, and their efficacy for COVID-19 is unknown.

●Remdesivir – Several randomized trials are underway to evaluate the efficacy of remdesivir for moderate or severe COVID-19 [74]. Remdesivir is a novel nucleotide analogue that has activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro and related coronaviruses (including SARS and MERS-CoV) both in vitro and in animal studies [75,76]. The compassionate use of remdesivir through an investigational new drug application was described in a case report of one of the first patients with COVID-19 in the United States [77]. Any clinical impact of remdesivir on COVID-19 remains unknown.

●Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine – Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, although hydroxychloroquine appears to have more potent antiviral activity [78]. A number of clinical trials are underway in China to evaluate the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 [79].

●Lopinavir-ritonavir – This combined protease inhibitor, which has primarily been used for HIV infection, has in vitro activity against the SARS-CoV [80] and appears to have some activity against MERS-CoV in animal studies [81]. The use of this agent for treatment of COVID-19 has been described in case reports [82-84], but its efficacy is unclear. In one report of five patients who were treated with lopinavir-ritonavir, three improved and two had clinical deterioration; four had gastrointestinal side effects. It is being evaluated in larger randomized trials.

●Tocilizumab – Treatment guidelines from China's National Health Commission include the IL-6 inhibitor tocilizumab for patients with severe COVID-19 and elevated IL-6 levels; the agent is being evaluated in a clinical trial [85].

Other interventions of interest but with limited or no clinical data include interferon beta and convalescent serum.



The studies referenced for hydoxychloroquine are

Yao X, Ye F, Zhang M, et al. In Vitro Antiviral Activity and Projection of Optimized Dosing Design of Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Clin Infect Dis 2020.

Cortegiani A, Ingoglia G, Ippolito M, et al. A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. J Crit Care 2020.

I'm not sure how they compare to what was mentioned above. Anecdotal data is dangerous but not unuseful Haven't had time to take a close look at either. Interesting though.


Any or either of these could be fast tracked by the FDA (compassionate use) which would make sense.

Im sorry

Sigh. Yup Possibly more than months. I was starting to get optimistic again..... ok I still am despite Lucy continuing to get my hopes up that the ball is ready to kick. maybe it was an attempt to see what the market would do

Maybe available sooner for compassionate use though... my thought nothing ive read

I don't know... (I literally don't know, I'm working off of spotty memory and a couple quick glances) but I think compassionate use is usually after things have gotten pretty bad, and they don't expect a patient to recover without trying the meds. I think those studies implied that using these drugs earlier on in the infection is important. In which case we will likely not see as much of a positive benefit when someone's already almost crapped out.

But I could be misremembering.

Sasquatch... hoax? Or social distancing CHAMPION?

Could be right. Its been a long time since I looked at it and parallel tracks.

If this French study which Puddin presented which displays the treatment, hydroxychloroquine and azithomycin combination displayed on the graph, if this holds true, many thousands will be following that green line rather than walking the green mile.
Cautiously optimistic.
But won't start the party until it's being implemented and proven to be the solution.