4 ms·
For French speakers, a talk yesterday from Didier Raoult who is also testing Chloroquine in France [1] (and I believe who originally discovered the anti-viral b
by cm2187 7y ago
For French speakers, a talk yesterday from Didier Raoult who is also testing Chloroquine in France [1] (and I believe who originally discovered the anti-viral benefits of that molecule on certain viruses). He finds that it reduces significantly the viral charge.
He made an interesting point. It appears infected people remain contagious for 3 weeks. Taking this drug allows to significantly reduce this period. The current advice for people who are sick is stay at home and only show up at an hospital if you start having respiratory problems. He thinks a better approach is to get them to get tested quickly, and take a combination of anti-viral drugs. This will likely result in less contagions.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4J8kydOvbc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4J8kydOvbc
[edit] Adding slides link posted by chmike on this page: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-19.pdf https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
[edit] corrected contagiousness from 4 weeks to 3 weeks.
- nico_h 7y agothat would make sense: test everybody, if positive take the drug for 5 days, rest for 2 more and back to work you go. a win for everybody!
- ianbooker 7y agoBecause testing everybody is no big deal.
- cm2187 7y agoAccording to Raoult, it doesn’t seem to be a technical limitation, the test is a standard procedure that labs around the country already do routinely for other viruses.
- gordeh 7y agoIt's the capacity that is the issue. Testing labs all over the world, are running far above capacity already. It's not something that can be scaled up overnight either.
- zimpenfish 7y agoSouth Korea managed to spin a system where they can test 20k people a day in just over two weeks[1]. What's stopping other countries from doing that? [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51836898 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51836898
- nico_h 7y agoWasn’t there a $1 test being proposed? You can start by testing people with high temperature at the entrance of buildings and metro. Still cheaper that closing schools and all the rest of the economy.
- comicjk 7y agoProposed, yes, but you can't buy it yet. Also, the cheaper tests so far are all antibody tests, not the more accurate RNA tests that everyone is clamoring for. Antibody tests don't work until you have had the infection for a while.
- JshWright 7y agoAnd they are even worse at telling you when you're "all clear" (if they can do it at all, many antibody tests are a "once positive, always positive" deal).
- chmike 7y agoDr Raoult reports that after 6 days of treatment with Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) only 25% were still carrying the virus. Without treatment, 80% were still carrying the virus after 6 days. This result should be published soon.
- masonic 7y agoBut does that mean anything? Without hydroxychloroquine, how many people stop shedding active virus because the immune system starts to respond by day 6 of symptoms? It seems to be about the same.
- C1sc0cat 7y agoI must admit as an immune supressed individual - if (uk) they might suggest prophylactic meds for us.
- tim333 7y agoFor non French speakers, Youtube will translate the subtitles to the language of your choice if you click settings a bit