Countering Covid-19

At this point in time, COVID-19 is still very much present, wrecking havoc, and largely a mystery. There are still no specific treatments for COVID-19, but Harvard Medical School suggests that getting enough rest, staying well hydrated, and taking medications to relieve fever and aches and pains can help with symptoms for now. Of course, treating the symptoms can still only go so far, and can only be applicable to those with milder symptoms; thus, we are all still anxiously waiting for an official recommended treatment to be established. However, with scientists all over the world working on the case, we can (and should) believe that we are in good hands, and trust in the process. In fact, even as we are still trying to figure out the complete pathogenicity of COVID-19, scientists have already been working hard with what they know at the moment to figure out effective treatments/therapies that hold potential and can be quickly implemented with minimal risk. Some currently promising options are antiviral drugs that were developed for other viruses, and antibodies from people who have recovered from COVID-19.

Antivirals

Each country has been conducting their own tests with their own drug predictions, so there are countless options being tested right now. According to Wired, Japan has particularly made a lot of progress with the drug Avigan. Avigan was created as an anti-influenza drug, and it was developed decades earlier by Toyama Chemical, a subsidiary of Fujifilm. Thus, Japan’s health minister, Katsunobu Kato, enlisted the well known camera and imaging company to help fight COVID-19.

And boyyyy did they help. 

The Fujifilm team worked from different offices and factories, made contingency plans for ramping up production of the drug, advised clinical researchers throughout Japan, and helped get the drug to hospitals where it was able to be used as an emergency measure to treat the growing numbers of COVID-19 patients. They somehow managed more and got further than what most governments could claim to have done in response to the spread of COVID-19. The Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters on March 28th that his government had begun the formal process for designating Avigan as Japan’s standard treatment for the virus.

Antibodies

Another treatment option that has been explored is using antibodies. Antibodies are these Y-shaped proteins that our own immune system, specifically our plasma cells, produces to identify and combat foreign antigens that enter our body. Under normal circumstances, our body will still contain these antibodies, and in greater numbers, after the infection is fought off. Thus, the concept of convalescent plasma – plasma from recovered patients – was created. According to Harvard Medical School, this method has been used for more than 100 years to treat illnesses such as measles, polio, chickenpox, and SARS, and now the same method is being explored for treating COVID-19. As of right now, experts don’t know during the course of the illness to give plasma, so there is still much experimentation that needs to be done in that regard; however since March 24th, the FDA began allowing convalescent plasma to be used as an emergency treatment option for patients with serious of immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections. As mentioned in a previous blog, I personally feel like “natural” is always better; of course if there are better results with a synthetic drug, I will strongly support effective treatment, but the idea of using things that our bodies naturally have just feels better. Even if the antibodies are from another person, they will still be more natural for the body than any drug could be, and because of that I really hope we can successfully find out how to optimize this antibody option for COVID-19 treatment.