COVID-19 update, 20 Mar

Drug combination works in hospitalized patients!

A small French study shows that an old malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) combined with (AZ) azithromycin.

The graph below shows the percent of patients with a nasal swab that contains the virus.

Black line (control), no change over six days.

Blue line, HCQ alone, nice reduction that is different from control on day 3 but is not cured by day six.

Green line, HCQ plus AZ together, better reduction than HCQ alone and NO VIRUS by day 5!

Caveat: a 20 patient study so results may differ on a big scale but this is a major breakthrough.

Note: my previous analysis of HCQ based on test tube data was that it would fail. I am glad it was tested!

Here is the paper if you want details.