ROME, February 27 (Sputnik) – The first three patients who have been cured of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Italy were treated with anti-Ebola and anti-AIDS drugs, representatives of the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome told Sputnik.
Those who were cured in Italy so far are two Chinese tourists and one Italian national who had visited China’s Wuhan, from which the virus originated. All three were treated in the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute.
“In the case of two Chinese tourists, we used antiviral therapy, which is used for other pathologies. These drugs, which have similarities, can help in such cases, according to our experts. [We also] used medical equipment to support the breathing [of patients], they were in the emergency department, and it really helped to restore [their] respiratory functions,” Marta Branca, the director of the institute, told Sputnik.
The patients who were cured of COVID-19 were treated with Lopinavir and Ritonavir — drugs used in the treatment and prevention of AIDS and HIV — and an anti-Ebola drug called Remdesivir.
“The World Health Organization has authorized them as an experimental therapy. In the coming weeks, we will see how effective they are,” the institute’s science communicator, Salvatore Curiale, told Sputnik.
Italy is facing the largest coronavirus outbreak outside Asia. According to the latest data by Italy’s civil protection agency, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases of the disease and 14 deaths in the country so far. The two centers of the outbreak are the northern Lombardy and Veneto regions.