A common treatment with chloroquine, a drug commonly used against malaria, has shown signs of efficacy against the coronavirus. In any case, says Didier Raoult, director of the Mediterranean Infection Institute in Marseille, very involved in the detection of the new coronavirus in France, based on the results of a Chinese clinical study.
"We already knew that chloroquine was effective in vitro against this new coronavirus and the clinical evaluation made in China confirmed it," explains Professor Raoult, renowned specialist in infectious diseases. It is based on an article published on February 19 in the journal BioScience Trends by three Chinese researchers. They analyze the results of a clinical trial conducted in more than ten Chinese hospitals (in Wuhan - epicenter of the epidemic -, Beijing and Shanghai in particular) to measure "the effectiveness of chloroquine on the treatment of pneumonia associated with Covid -19 ".
Inexpensive and safe treatment
"The results obtained so far on more than 100 patients have shown that chloroquine phosphate was more effective than the treatment received by the comparative group to contain the evolution of pneumonia, to improve the state of the lungs, so that the patient becomes negative again for the virus and to shorten the duration of the disease, "specify the Chinese researchers. The short study does not, however, quantify this difference in effectiveness.
"The antiviral and anti-inflammatory capacities of chloroquine could play a role in its potential effectiveness in treating patients suffering from pneumonia caused by Covid-19", continues the article on the study carried out by professors Jianjun Gao, Zhenxue Tian and Xu Yang, from Qingdao University and Qingdao Hospital.
News all the more interesting that "chloroquine is an inexpensive and safe drug, used for over 70 years," insists the article. According to Chinese researchers, a treatment of 500 mg of chloroquine per day for ten days would be sufficient.
The general direction of health studies this treatment
"Ultimately, this infection is perhaps the simplest and cheapest to treat of all viral infections," adds Professor Raoult. "This is extraordinary news, this treatment which costs nothing," he insisted, welcoming the work of Chinese researchers to find an effective drug, a path he believes should be preferred rather than the search for a vaccine that does not may not be available for many months anyway.
Asked about BFMTV from Rome on this treatment, the French Minister of Health Olivier Véran assured having met several times with Didier Raoult: "He told me about his observations and the studies he highlighted, that I sent back to the Directorate General for Health, which is in the process of carrying out all the analyzes ”.
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"We know that there are indeed interesting studies on an in vitro impact, but studies on the patient have yet to be determined," added the minister.