Coronavirus: Combination of two anti-HIV drugs proved crucial in treatment, Rajasthan official

A combination of two anti-HIV drugs has proved crucial in the treatment of coronavirus positive cases, a senior official of the Rajasthan government said. Additional Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said the patients' condition improved after they were administered the anti-HIV drugs. Three of the four patients in the state have now been declared coronavirus-free. Singh said the first two patients tested positive for the virus were an Italian couple.

"Their symptoms were flu-like so they were initially given anti-malaria and anti-swine flu drugs," he said.

"All this while, our doctors were in touch with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Drug Controller General of India. Since the structure of coronavirus is similar to that of HIV to some extent, so they tried a combination of the two anti-HIV drugs," he added.

"It appears it (combination of drugs) is working because three patients have recovered. Good thing is that all the three patients are elderly and the successful result of the drug on patients of such age is a big thing," he said.

Dr D S Meena, Superintendent of the SMS Hospital, where all the three patients were treated, said the combination of the anti-HIV drugs proved useful in treating the patients. He informed that after recovering from the virus, the Italian woman has already been shifted from the SMS Hospital to a quarantine facility at the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences.

Her husband and a Jaipur based 85-year-old man are being shifted from isolation ward to the ICU within the SMS Hospital after they recovered from coronavirus. The fourth positive case, a 24-year-old man, is being treated at the isolation facility of the Jaipur hospital.