Thailand claims to cure corona virus with anti-Hiv drug cocktail

On Sunday, the health ministry in Thailand said that a Chinese woman who was infected with the infamous new coronavirus has shown drastic improvements after she was treated with a cocktail of anti-viral drugs that are used to treat both flu and HIV.

During the health ministries daily press briefing, Dr Kriengsak Attipornwanich said that the 71-year-old patient tested negative for the novel coronavirus 48 hours after the Thai doctors gave her the combination. He even said that along with her positive test turning negative in 48 hours, the patient was extremely exhausted but was able to sit straight 12 hours after the drugs cocktail was given.

This drug cocktail had a combination of the anti-flu drug oseltamivir along with anti-virals like lopinavir and ritonavir which are used to treat HIV. The health ministry is still awaiting proper research results to prove the findings.

This good news comes in as soon as coronavirus claims the first life outside China of a 44-year-old Chinese man in the Philippines while the number of deaths has crossed 330. As per now, Thailand had detected 19 confirmed cases of the virus which has said to have broken out from Wuhan city in China which now is under lockdown. The country seems to have the second-highest number of cases outside China after Japan with 20 people suffering from the novel coronavirus.

Till now only eight patients were able to recover and go back home while the remaining 11 still are in the hospital. According to the video released on Sunday, Anutin Charnvirakul who is the health minister of Thailand visited this patient from Wuhan who has recovered from the coronavirus. He chatted with her in Mandarin and she thanked him and the medical staff.

Thailand’s government is now battling public criticism that the country is lagging behind to evacuate several Thai citizens from the Hubei province which is the centre of the outbreak. According to Anutin Charnvirakul, the evacuation would take place on Tuesday and the people would be kept in quarantine for 14 days.