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The World Health Organization said Tuesday that some treatments appear to be limiting the severity or duration of COVID-19 disease, referring to the results of the first studies of four or five treatments.
The Geneva-based WHO is leading a global initiative to develop safe and effective vaccines, tests and drugs to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19. Respiratory disease has infected 4.29 million people worldwide, according to a Reuters count.
“We have some treatments that appear to be in very early studies that limit the severity or duration of the disease, but we have nothing that can kill or stop the virus,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a briefing.
“We have potentially positive data, but we need to see more data to be 100% sure we can tell this treatment on that one,” he added, saying more research was needed and that it was planned.
Harris did not mention the treatments. He later said that he had referred to the first results of four or five treatments that were already in the public domain and not to the WHO Solidarity Trial, which is broader in scope but whose results are not yet available.
Gilead Science Inc says its antiviral medication remdesivir has helped improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients.
Clinical data published last month on remdesivir raised hopes that it could be an effective treatment. Several studies looking at combinations of antiviral drugs have also suggested that they can help patients fight the virus.
Results from a Hong Kong trial published this month showed that a triple combination of antiviral drugs helped alleviate symptoms in patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 infection and quickly reduced the amount of virus in their bodies.
The trial, which involved 127 patients, compared those who received the combination drug, consisting of the HIV drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the hepatitis drug ribavirin, and treatment of multiple sclerosis interferon beta, with a control group that received only the HIV medicine.
A treatment of malaria advocated by United States President Donald Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against coronavirus again failed to show benefit in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, according to a study this month.
Although the study had certain limitations, physicians reported that the use of hydroxycolloquine did not decrease the need for patients requiring respiratory assistance or the risk of death.
The lifeline here
In Geneva, the WHO official issued a cautionary note about expectations for a vaccine, saying that coronaviruses in general are “very difficult viruses” that are “difficult to produce vaccines.”
More than 100 potential COVID-19 vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials. The WHO said in April that a vaccine would take at least 12 months.
Harris said the Americas were the current “center” of the pandemic, although he also observed growing cases in Africa. However, he said the continent had a “great advantage” over other countries with little experience in infectious disease outbreaks.
“They often have a very good contact tracing infrastructure and a deep, deep, deep memory and understanding of why we take a new pathogen very, very seriously,” he said, pointing to South Africa for its effective testing and contact tracing.
When asked about the reasons for the large number of cases in the United States and Brazil, Harris said: “All over the world we have seen that the warnings we issued from the beginning, very, very early, were not seen as warnings about serious and lethal disease. “
She reiterated that the WHO, which has been especially criticized by the United States for its handling of the pandemic, would conduct a “post-action” review that would include a “free and frank” discussion of its performance.
United States President Donald Trump is working to reopen the economy quickly against recommendations by health experts to act cautiously to avoid a resurgence of the virus that has so far killed more than 82,000 people in the United States, the highest death toll in the world. He said he acted early to prevent the spread of the disease.
Brazil has registered a total of 177,589 confirmed cases of the virus and 12,400 deaths, the deadliest outbreak in an emerging market nation.
