Kerala Doctors begin using HIV combo drugs on Coronavirus patients
The team of doctors here is led by the medical college principal Dr Thomas Mathew. Doctors Fathahuddin, Jacob Jacob, Ganesh Mohan and Geetha Nair are other members.;
Doctors have started using anti-HIV drug combinations Lopinavir and Ritonavir for the first time in the country in the treatment of a COVID-19 patient in Kerala, a day after the Union Health Ministry recommended such a course on a case-to-case basis.
The medicines are being used on a foreigner admitted to the isolation ward of the Government Medical College Hospital in Ernakulam with his consent, according to a statement from the Ernakulam District Information Office.
Earlier, the nod for using the drugs on the patient, also suffering from pneumonia, was given by the State Medical Board and the Indian Council of Medical Research, it said.
After the medicines were arranged by the Ernakulam District Collector S. Suhas, the doctors revised and fixed the protocol for the treatment.
The doctors said this was for the first time in India that Ritonavir and Lopinavir are used on a COVID-19 patient.
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