Word: ribavirin
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...order to render SARS less deadly. At present, about one in every 20 SARS victims dies, usually due to swelling in the lungs, a result of the body's own immune-system response. In Hong Kong, doctors claim they are successfully combating the disease using the antiviral drug ribavirin to inhibit the virus combined with corticosteroids to check an overstimulated immune response. Ribavirin works by interfering with intracellular viral replication, slowing the infection's spread within the body. The problem, as microbiologist Professor John Tam of CUHK points out, is that "if you stop the replication, that means you stop...
...meantime, doctors are concentrating on refining treatment procedures. They are mainly relying on a combination of antivirals such as ribavirin, immunosuppressant steroids that stop the immune system from devouring itself and a serum containing antibodies from recovered SARS patients that is injected into current victims. The cocktail seems to be working, with most of the deaths thus far confined to the elderly or those with pre-existing medical conditions. Doctors also suspect that as the disease is passed on second- and thirdhand, the virus might lose its potency. Says Dr. Joseph Sung, chief of service at the Prince of Wales...
...have saved other researchers from weeks of agonizing trial and error. Dr. Ronald Low, microbiologist in chief at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, believes that earlier Chinese disclosure of case histories could have accelerated development of a treatment. Low says that since his hospital started administering the antiviral medicine ribavirin, patients have stopped dying. "So far, all the patients on this treatment are still alive," he says, "and most of them are showing improvement...
Taking their cue from AIDS research, doctors have discovered that a cocktail of drugs may be more effective than a single medication against hepatitis C. Until now interferon--injected three times a week--was the only treatment. But studies show that adding the antiviral pill ribavirin can more than double the odds of eradicating the liver disease. And for those who suffer a relapse, the combo increases the chances for a successful treatment fivefold...
...fastest-selling pharmaceuticals in border towns now is Ribavirin, a drug developed in the U.S. to treat AIDS but not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Despite official doubts about Ribavirin's efficacy, thousands of Americans are crossing the border to buy it; smuggling rings have been formed to transport large quantities to the U.S. for resale. "I have had people come in saying they will buy all I can get," says a pharmacist in Ciudad Juarez...