Russia claims it has the drug to treat coronavirus

Russia on Saturday claimed it has created a drug, based on the antimalarial Mefloquine, to treat patients suffering from the coronavirus disease.

The Russian authorities announced developing the drug as global virus tally crossed 600,000 confirmed patients and nearly 30,000 deaths.

The drug prevents virus replication in cells and as a result stops the inflammatory process caused by the virus, the Russian Federal Biomedical Agency said in a statement.

Veronika Skvortsova, the agency’s head, said Mefloquine has to be combined with antibiotics for the maximum effect, allowing increase in the concentration of antiviral agents in blood plasma and lungs.

“This will ensure effective treatment of patients with various degrees of coronavirus infection,” Skvortsova said.

It is pertinent to mention here that Russian scientists have also claimed to start testing prototypes of potential vaccines against the novel coronavirus.

Read More: UK researchers all set to conduct human trial of COVID-19 vaccine 

Scientists in the Vektor State Virology and Biotechnology Centre in the city of Novosibirsk had said they have developed vaccine prototypes based on six different technological platforms and have begun tests to try to work out how effective they are and in what doses they could be administered.

About Coronavirus

COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus-19) is a new strain of coronavirus (a large family of viruses) that had previously not been identified in humans. It first emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and has since been declared as an outbreak by World Health Organization (WHO).

In very rare cases, the disease could be fatal.

Older people or patients who already have diseases such as diabetes or heart problems may be vulnerable to becoming severely ill because of this virus.