Which Drugs are Effective for COVID-19?

by  Leonny Y. Hartiadi and Audrey Crystalia 

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across 212 countries. As of April 30, over 3.2 million people had tested positive for the virus, leading to over 228,239 deaths. Many reports and information are circulating about possible drugs for COVID-19 which have caused confusion. 

Several types of drugs are being studied for their effectiveness for curing COVID-19. Most of the drugs are antiviral drugs which were previously used to treat other conditions. Among the antiviruses are favipiravir, or better known as Avigan, which was used for influenza viral infection in Japan; remdesivir which was tested on Ebola; ritonavir/lopinavir, an antiviral drug given to HIV patients; and ribavirin which is used for hepatitis C infection and other viral haemorrhagic fevers. Other drugs include chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine which have been used to treat malaria and chronic inflammatory diseases, as well as biologics, such as interferons-I, tocilizumab (monoclonal antibodies against interleukin-6). Currently, Numerous randomized control trials are carried out to establish the effectiveness of these drugs for curing COVID-19. 

Up until today, there have yet to be any drugs that have established effectiveness in a randomized large-scale clinical trial. Therefore, these drugs can only be given to COVID-19 patients under close medical supervisions. As there are many misleading pieces of information on COVID-19  treatment, people should be more circumspect when sorting the information available out there. The full article can be accessed via https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/05/05/which-drugs-are-effective-for-covid-19.html