QCOSTARICA – A study carried out by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Georgia State University, United States, indicated that the experimental antiviral Molnupiravir completely suppresses and in a period of only 24 hours the transmission of SARS- Cov 2.
Given this, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health assured that said drug is currently “under investigation and the reason why no criteria can be issued on its efficacy and safety for treatment in humans against COVID-19″.
The research group, led by Dr. Richard Plemper, a professor at the University of Georgia, initially found that the drug is particularly strong against all types of influenza.
“This is the first demonstration of an oral drug available that can rapidly block the transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” said Plemper, adding that “this could completely change the landscape.”
Because the drug can be taken orally, treatment can be started early for a potential triple benefit: preventing patients from progressing to a severe disease state, shortening the infectious phase of the disease, and stopping massive outbreaks. the study indicated.
“We observed from the beginning that MK-4482 / EIDD-2801 has a broad spectrum activity against respiratory RNA viruses and that oral treatment of ferrets infected with SARS-Cov2 manages to reduce the viral particles spread by several orders of magnitude, reducing drastically the transmission,” Plemper said.
In the study, published in Nature Microbiology, he used a ferret model to test the drug’s effect in stopping the spread of the virus.
