RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A combination of the antivirals interferon beta-1b, lopinavir-ritonavir (a medicine used against the HIV virus), and ribavirin (often used in hepatitis C cases) may be a promising treatment against the novel coronavirus.
This is the result of research conducted by six hospitals in Hong Kong and published in the renowned scientific journal The Lancet. The study considered only mild and moderate cases of the virus.
To conduct the study, 127 patients, with an average age of 52 years, were divided into two groups. The first group, with 86 people, was administered the complete cocktail, and, on average, seven days after the start of treatment the virus spread was reduced, while the second group, a control group, consisted of 41 people, treated only with lopinavir-ritonavir. The reduction of the virus in the second case took longer, twelve days.
The triple combination also yielded good results in the patient discharge time: the first group was discharged in nine days, and the second in up to 14.5 days. When treated with the cocktail, the symptoms also disappeared faster and in four days people already saw an improvement in their cases. Those using the lopinavir-ritonavir alone saw their symptoms disappear in double the time.
A third phase of the research will still be conducted, according to the researchers. “The next phase with interferon-beta 1b and a third placebo group should be considered because comparisons between the subgroups have shown that interferon beta-1b is a key component in our combination treatment. The lack of patients in a severe condition has not allowed the findings to be generalized to more severe cases,” explains the study.
The randomized clinical study (when subjects are randomly assigned to two or more intervention groups) was conducted directly with humans and enjoys high reliability among the scientific community.
Source: Exame