There is no confirmed effective treatment for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but clinical trials continue to determine the effectiveness of HIV drugs and antivirals, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Wednesday
GENOA/MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2020) There is no confirmed effective treatment for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but clinical trials continue to determine the effectiveness of HIV drugs and antivirals, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Wednesday.
The statement came in light of recent media reports stipulating that chloroquine a common treatment for malaria is also effective for the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday, Director of the Marseille-based Méditerranée Infection Foundation office Didier Raoult said in an interview with AFP that based on the clinical trials conducted by Chinese scientists, French researchers established that chloroquine was proved to be effective against COVID-19. Media also reported that the drug had been already used to treat pneumonia caused by the virus in 10 hospitals in Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai.
"As of today, in fact, there is no effective treatment [for COVID-19] available, but there are different clinical trials ongoing, for example, with lopinavir and ritonavir [HIV drugs], in fact, antivirals. So I cannot comment on this specific issue, but there is a coordinated effort to scale up an effective treatment, and the same for vaccines," WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told a press conference in Rome when asked about the efficiency of chloroquine.
Kluge added that though it would take about a year and a half to develop a vaccine, a coordinated effort could accelerate the process, as in the situation of Ebola.
EU Commissioner for Health and food Safety Stella Kyriakides echoed the WHO official, saying that there was no valid treatment for COVID-19 at the moment.
"But I want to stress here that the Commission has committed over 10 million euro to fund research for COVID-19 treatment and diagnostics. On Monday, we announced a further 90 million through the Innovative Medicines Initiative, which is a partnership between the EU and pharmaceutical industry, in the search of a vaccine," she said.
Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza, in turn, pledged that the country would share all the knowledge it gains through dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
"At the moment, it is very clear how important scientific approach and research are. And it is also important to do this within the framework of international cooperation in order to share knowledge and competencies. Italy will do whatever it can to actually share the knowledge and information that we are collecting now during this emergency with the international community," Speranza said.
To date, over 81,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, leading to the deaths of over 2,750 people. More than 30,000 people have been cured of the disease.
