A COVID-19 infected Washington state man’s life was saved thanks to the Ebola drug remdesvir, his wife said this week.
In a Thursday interview aired on FOX News’ The Story, Susan Kane told host Martha MacCallum her husband tested positive for coronavirus after returning from a business trip to Florida.
When she heard that Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash. was using remdesivir on an experimental basis to treat coronavirus patients, she had high hopes for her hubby, identified by NBC News as Chris Kane.
“When my husband started to get very sick, I just thought, that’s where I want to take him,” she said on the program. “We could have gone to about four different hospitals, but I wanted to take him to Providence, because I heard the first patient survived. I didn’t know why, but I heard that he survived.”
President Trump and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Thursday highlighted remdesvir — an antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences and found to work against SARS and MERS, two other coronaviruses — as a promising therapy.
Kane, who also tested positive for COVID-19 but only experienced minor symptoms, said the drug quickly proved effective for her husband.
“He was admitted on Monday,” she said on the program. “He was given his first dose on Tuesday. By Wednesday, he was improving dramatically. His fever went down from 103 to just under 100. By that night, he said that it didn’t feel as tight or as much pressure on his chest.”
He continues to feel better each day, and is now recovering back at home, she said.
Remdesvir also helped a 79-year-old man in Lombardy, one of the worst-affected areas in northern Italy, recover from the deadly bug, Metro UK reported.
The man was treated for 12 days at San Martino Hospital in Genoa, where doctors are impressed by his rapid recovery.
“We have the first truly healed [patient],” Professor Matteo Bassetti, director of the hospital’s infectious disease clinic, told the outlet. “Two swabs he was given were both negative.”
Remdesvir works by shutting off the virus’ ability to replicate inside cells.
Multiple trials are underway to evaluate the drug in China and other countries, and in the US, last month the National Institutes of Health began a randomized trial for the treatment of COVID-19 using the antiviral.
