As COVID-19 is continuing its killing spree in all nooks of the world, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has put forward a remedy to combat this deadly coronavirus outbreak. In a recent interaction with Twitter followers, Musk suggested that Chloroquine could be used to treat patients infected with the coronavirus.
What is Chloroquine, can it be used to combat COVID-19?
In his tweet, Elon Musk also shared a study report that analyzes the usage of Chloroquine to save patients from the deadly virus outbreak. Even though the drug has been in use since 1945, it is this new study that detailed its effectiveness in treating coronavirus infection.
"Recent guidelines from South Korea and China report that chloroquine is an effective antiviral therapeutic treatment against Coronavirus Disease 2019. The use of Chloroquine is showing favourable outcomes in humans infected with Coronavirus including faster time to recovery and shorter hospital stay," wrote the researchers in the study report shared by Elon Musk.
It should be noted that Chloroquine is a medicine that is being used to prevent and treat malaria, and this medicine is now emerging as the hope for medical experts to cure coronavirus infection.
Interestingly, Chloroquine is also very inexpensive, as it is being in use for the past seven decades, and experts believe that findings of this new study report could help to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.
Italy weeps
Even though the coronavirus outbreak was initially reported in China, it is Italy that is suffering a lot from this deadly viral infection. In the last 24 hours alone, 349 people died due to the infection, and the total death toll has risen to 2,000. Shockingly, the death toll of Novel Coronavirus in Italy has risen to 19.3 percent in the last 24 hours, and it is much higher when compared to other affected countries.
