Epigraph:
Every human life is precious and sacred, saving one is like the saving of the whole of humanity. (Al Quran 5:32/33)
Mount Fuji Japan. Suggested reading by the Muslim Times: A Moonshot Moment for the Muslims: Making Covid 19 Vaccine before the West and China
Source: The Guardian
By Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Wed 18 Mar 2020 07.56 EDT
Shares in Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, which developed favipiravir, surged after praise by Chinese official following clinical trials
Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.
Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.
“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.
Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said.
In addition, X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir, compared to 62% or those without the drug.
Coronavirus: the week explained – our expert correspondents put a week’s worth developments in context in one email newsletter
Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, which developed the drug – also known as Avigan – in 2014, has declined to comment on the claims.
Shares in the firm surged on Wednesday following Zhang’s comments, closing the morning up 14.7% at 5,207 yen, having briefly hit their daily limit high of 5,238 yen.
Doctors in Japan are using the same drug in clinical studies on coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms, hoping it will prevent the virus from multiplying in patients.
But a Japanese health ministry source suggested the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms. “We’ve given Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn’t seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied,” the source told the Mainichi Shimbun.
The same limitations had been identified in studies involving coronavirus patients using a combination of the HIV antiretrovirals lopinavir and ritonavir, the source added.
In 2016, the Japanese government supplied favipiravir as an emergency aid to counter the Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea.
Favipiravir would need government approval for full-scale use on Covid-19 patients, since it was originally intended to treat flu.
A health official told the Mainichi the drug could be approved as early as May. “But if the results of clinical research are delayed, approval could also be delayed.”
Dr. Zia H Shah, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times and in charge of health section
Suggested reading by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times
Synthetic antibodies might offer a quick coronavirus treatment
The Four Possible Timelines for Life Returning to Normal
The Muslim Times Recommending Universal BCG Vaccination to Fight the Pandemic
BCG vaccination and Covid 19
The Muslim Times has the best collections in the war against Covid 19 as we are collecting from all the established sources
Corona Fear’s Cure: Chanting from the Bible and the Quran
UK coronavirus mass home testing to be made available ‘within days’
Praise be to God for the Miracle of Our Immune System
USA: 15-minute coronavirus test is here
The self isolation for 70 years and older may last up to 4 months
Does the Ordinary Soap Kill Coronavirus?
Islam: China has made eating wild animals illegal after the coronavirus outbreak?
All of humanity are intimate neighbors: Coronavirus proves it once again
Here’s a list of disinfectants you can use against coronavirus
To see the daily new cases and deaths in the top eleven countries go to
When Not Going to Jumma is a Huge Blessing
“We project that roughly 56 percent of our population – 25.5 million people – will be infected with the virus over an eight week period,” Governor Newsom of California wrote on 3/19/2020.