China coronavirus: Hong Kong professor Yuen Kwok-yung says effectiveness of drugs could be judged within weeks, with tests due to start in city
- University of Hong Kong scientists looking at whether drugs used during Sars epidemic will work for those infected with Wuhan coronavirus
- The new virus has already claimed more than 130 lives in mainland China, with eight people confirmed as infected in Hong Kong
The effectiveness of drugs being developed in Hong Kong to combat the deadly Wuhan coronavirus could be judged within weeks, infectious diseases expert Professor Yuen Kwok-yung has revealed ahead of testing.
Yuen offered a fresh glimmer of hope on Wednesday against the outbreak, the day after saying city researchers had already come up with a vaccine for the virus but needed time for trials.
The developments came as the number of cases worldwide surpassed 6,000 for the contagion, which has killed more than 130 people, and with scientists across the globe working around the clock to fight the outbreak.
Yuen, the chairman for infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong, said the protease inhibitor Kaletra had been effective in treating severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003.
Along with another drug called interferon beta, it had also worked in laboratory tests on a type of monkey against Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), which was first identified in 2012.
“The coronavirus in Sars or the coronavirus in Mers are in the same family of virus with the new coronavirus,” he told a radio programme.
“We can now run tests in laboratories to see if the two drugs are effective in treating the new coronavirus.”
The professor said experts would also explore if adding ribavirin, an antiviral medicine, to those two drugs would improve them.