Coping with COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) virus made its first appearance in Wuhan, China in December 2019. It has since spread like a wild fire across the globe with over five million corona virus disease (COVID-19) confirmed cases and almost three hundred fifty thousand deaths at the time of writing this article. This could however be only the tip of the iceberg considering the contagious nature of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the rate at which it is spreading across the globe. China did well to contain the virus with strict lockdown measures, sealing the affected areas, active case finding, tracing, tracking and treating the COVID-19 cases at an astonishing speed. In the absence of specific treatment available as yet, treatment consists of mainly symptomatic management with some experimental medications. Antivirals, specifically Remdesivir has been a strong candidate for the treatment of COVID-19. However, it has yet to receive universal acceptance for the treatment of COVID-19. Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine seem to be effective in limiting the replication of SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro. COVID-19 is highly pandemic in countries where malaria is least prevalent and least pandemic in countries where malaria is highly prevalent. These findings suggest the hypothesis that anti-malarial drugs have efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19.