Max Minute: What Medications Are Doctors Using To Treat The Coronavirus?
By Dr. Max Gomez
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Doctors continue their search for new therapies to treat the coronavirus, but finding a cure for this deadly illness is no easy task.
This happens every time there is a new pathogen that pops up, and more will continue to pop up.
When there is no known treatment for a new germ, the understandable reaction is to throw the medical version of the kitchen sink at it, even if there's little scientific reason to believe that it might actually work.
But when people are dying, a Hail Mary seems understandable.
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One of the first was the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination, a Malaria drug and an antibiotic, neither of which should have been effective but they might be.
There are also a number of drugs in various stages of testing for other conditions that are now being proposed against corona. Maybe one of those will help.
Now we're hearing of ivermectin, a veterinary anti-parasite drug that also seems to kill coronavirus in vitro.
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The problem is that there are dozens of drugs that kill viruses in a test tube or petri dish.
HIV is a prime example. So many drugs over the years killed that deadly virus in vitro but failed miserably when used in humans.
This doesn't mean we should stop trying. Medicine is full of examples of miracle drugs that no one thought should work and are now the standard of care.
Let's hope that happens with corona.
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