Dr Priyad Ariyaratnam

The drugs that can help us defeat Covid-19

A Hydroxychloroquine pill (Getty images)

Covid-19 is here to stay. Whether it flickers in wait or rages like wildfire, it will remain part of our lives for the foreseeable future. As the vast majority of people who contract the SARS COV-2 virus recover after mild flu-like symptoms then, the onus should be on finding ways to reduce the mortality in the minority who suffer the worst, rather than keeping society as a whole under draconian restrictions. Anti-virals and anti-inflammatories are potential strategies for this.

Death from the virus is invariably due to the direct damage it causes in the lungs or from the intense inflammatory response leading to multi-organ failure:

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The lung damage occurs when the virus’s spike protein binds to our lungs, allowing it to enter and release its genetic material (RNA). Anti-virals can stop this process.

Hydroxychloroquine, historically used as an anti-malarial drug has been exploited recently for its anti-viral properties.

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