Bordeaux (AFP)
The 48-year-old patient infected with the new coronavirus and released from the Bordeaux University Hospital on Thursday, after 22 days of hospitalization, was treated with remdesivir, a "promising" antiviral, said his medical team on Friday.
The remdesivir, from the American Gilead, "acts directly on the virus to prevent its multiplication", explained to the press Professor Denis Malvy, head of the tropical diseases unit and the traveler of CHU Pellegrin.
It is a "small molecule capable of gaining all of the compartments of the body and which is known to diffuse perfectly into the lungs, the target organ of the disease," added the doctor, adding that the drug is administered intravenously for ten days and the patient "perfectly tolerated" it.
It is "today in the state of knowledge the most convincing promising candidate for an evaluation", he added, adding that the choice of this drug had been made "collegially at national level, in consultation with WHO "(World Health Organization).
It will be the subject of a comparative therapeutic trial in China with the coordination of the WHO "in the days to come"
Professor Malvy mentioned a "second candidate", lopinavir used against HIV-AIDS, combined with ritonavir, which has been the subject of a trial in China, the results of which are awaited.
The Bordeaux patient left the hospital "without clinical signs" and is "no longer carrying any trace of the presence of the virus", in the current state of knowledge, added the doctor. It will continue to be followed regularly.
"We will review it over a period of a few weeks for a new face-to-face clinical and radiological evaluation. Perhaps also a blood test. And then it will be followed in the coming weeks to build its re-socialization and the sustainability of its physiological state, "said Professor Malvy.
The man returned to France on January 22 from China. He had notably passed through Wuhan where the Covid-19 epidemic appeared at the end of 2019. He was hospitalized the next day.
© 2020 AFP