Editor's Note: Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer and political analyst for CNN en Español. His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International. The opinions expressed in this comment are exclusively yours. See more opinion pieces at CNNE.com/opinion
(CNN Spanish) - As we know, President Donald Trump again mentioned hydroxychloroquine on Tuesday as a fantastic remedy against the pandemic caused by covid-19. The substance is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and malaria, among other diseases.
He invoked in his favor the testimony of Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston-based doctor. This woman, born in Cameroon and a medical graduate in Nigeria, is a Protestant pastor and claims to have successfully used hydroxychloroquine hundreds of times.
Faced with that opinion, the general consensus of American scientists maintains that the evidence contradicts the opinion of Trump and Dr. Immanuel. They think that it is not only useless against the coronavirus, but can be counterproductive.
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However, two other drugs, one developed against cholesterol and the other against follicular lymphoma, showed encouraging results in laboratory tests.
Researchers Yaakov Nahmias, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr. Benjamin TenOever, from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, opted for fenofibrate against cholesterol and triglycerides, and saw how the virus had disappeared from the lungs of the affected in five days.
Yale University School of Medicine and biopharmaceutical AI Therapeutic chose the substance LAM-002A from 13,000 medications. In their preliminary studies they confirmed that it was not only effective in fighting infection in the lungs, but that it enhanced the efficacy of the antiviral remdesivir, already approved to treat the coronavirus.
Anyway, while the saving vaccines arrive there are several ways to fight against this tiny but implacable enemy.
covid-19