Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology claim that certain antibiotics, which are available on the market, could treat the deadly infection COVID-19, which caused by the new coronavirus.
They claimed that four antibiotics could treat COVID-19 despite warnings from the WHO and CDC that antibiotics do not work for viral infections and overusing them could lead to antibiotic resistance.
The researchers believe that those antibiotics could be used as a first-line treatment of COVID-19. That’s because they found that the drugs, which are advised to treat staph and skin infections, have been able to stop the coronavirus in lab settings.
They are following the “Drug Repurposing” strategy, meaning the drug used for one condition is found to be treating another condition during trials.
For instance, Viagra, which was initially approved for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, was found to treat erectile dysfunction in men. The drug was repurposed twice.
Senior study author Dr. Denis Kainov said, “Drug repurposing is a strategy for generating additional value from an existing drug by targeting diseases other than that for which it was originally intended.”
“For example, teicoplanin, oritavancin, dalbavancin, and monensin are approved antibiotics that have been shown to inhibit corona and other viruses in the laboratory,” added Dr. Kainov.
He explained, “One of the advantages of repurposing a drug rather than developing a new one is that all of the details surrounding the medication’s development are already known,” arguing that it saves both money and time.
“Therefore, repositioning of launched or even failed drugs to viral diseases provides unique translational opportunities,” added Dr. Kainov. “[This includes] a substantially higher probability of success to market as compared with developing new virus-specific drugs and vaccines, and a significantly reduced cost and timeline to clinical availability.”
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that at least 8,400 people underwent screening, of which 33 have tested positive for COVID-19. The monitoring started US health officials confirmed the first possible community transmission of the virus in Solano County.
The CDC does not know exactly how the new patient contracted the virus, who has now been receiving medical care in Sacramento County.
California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell said, “This is a fluid situation right now and I want to emphasize the risk to the American public remains low. There have been a limited number of confirmed cases to date.”
The patient was not under quarantine before her diagnosis. She was out and about in her community, according to the state officials.
Newsom said, “We are currently in deep partnership with CDC on one overriding protocol that drives our principle focus right now and that’s testing, and the importance to increase our testing protocols and to have point of contact diagnostic testing as our top priority not just in the state of California but I imagine all across the United States.”
The governor said the state health officials have 200 testing kits on hand and they will get more over the next few days. “We have just a few hundred testing kits and that’s surveillance testing as well as diagnostic testing,” Newsom added. “That’s simply inadequate to do justice to the kind of testing that is required to address this issue head-on.”
