Professor Didier Raoult research confirms Hydroxychloroquine cures coronavirus

Major breakthroughs are being made on virological cure of coronavirus that emanated from China and has been threatening human race all over the world. The breakthroughs are invalidating earlier beliefs and World Health Organization (WHO) postulation that coronavirus has no cure.

Professor Didier Raoult research result released on Saturday showed that Hydroxychloroquine treatment can cure coronavirus.

Prof. Raoult after administering Hydroxychloroquine treatment on 1061 patients came up with the findings that
being treated with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, a complete virological cure was obtained in 91.7% of patients within 10 days.

Details of the report read as highlighted by FOX News:

ABSTRACT
Background
In a recent survey, most physicians worldwide considered that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZ) are the two most effective drugs among available molecules against COVID-19. Nevertheless, to date, one preliminary clinical trial only has demonstrated their efficacy on the viral load. Additionally, a clinical study including 80 patients was published, and in vitro efficiency of this association was demonstrated.

Methods:
The study was performed at IHU Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France. A cohort of 1061 COVID-19 patients, treated for at least 3 days with the HCQ-AZ combination and a follow-up of at least 9 days, was investigated. Endpoints were death, worsening and viral shedding persistence.

Findings
From March 3 to April 9, 2020, 59655 specimens from 38617 patients were tested for
COVID-19 by PCR. Of the 3165 positive patients placed in the care of our institute, 1061 previously unpublished patients met our inclusion criteria. Their median age was 43.8 years old and 493 were male (46.4%). No cardiac toxicity was observed. Virological cure was obtained in 973 patients within 10 days (91.7%). Prolonged viral carriage at completion of treatment was observed in 47 patients (4.4%) and was associated to a higher viral load at diagnosis (p < 10-2) but viral culture was negative at day 10 and all but one were PCR-cleared at day 15. A poor outcome was observed for 46 patients (4.3%), 10 were transferred to ICU, 5 patients died (0.47%) (74-95 years old) and 31 required 10 days of hospitalization or more. Among this group, 25 are now cured and 16 are still hospitalized (98% of patients cured so far). Poor clinical outcome was significantly associated to older age (OR 1.09), initial higher severity (OR 13.46) and low hydroxychloroquine serum concentration. In addition, both poor clinical and virological outcomes were associated to the use of selective beta-blocking agents and angiotensin II receptor blockers (p<0.05). Mortality was significantly lower in patients who had received > 3 days of HCQ-AZ than in patients treated with other regimens both at IHU and in all of Marseille’s public hospitals (p < 10-2).

Interpretation
The HCQ-AZ combination, when started immediately after diagnosis, is a safe and efficient treatment for COVID-19, with a mortality rate of 0.5% in older patients. It avoids worsening and clears virus persistence and contagiosity in most cases.