Are HIV medications being studied as treatments for COVID-19?
Thursday, April 23, 2020
By Caroline Parker
Copy link
Copy featured image
YES
The World Health Organization and the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine confirm that studies of Lopinavir and Ritonavir, two antiretroviral medications used in combination to treat HIV, are underway to gauge their potential use in treating COVID-19. They emphasize that evidence is not strong enough to prove the treatment is effective against the disease.
The South Korean Journal of Medical Science reports that the combination of antiretroviral medications, known as LPV/r, was used to treat some of the country's first COVID-19 patients. South Korean researchers conducted a study of LPV/r against SARS, a disease caused by another type of coronavirus that was contained relatively quickly after it emerged in 2003.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
FACT BRIEF BY
