Israeli hospitals were among the first anywhere to use dexamethasone, a steroid drug, to stop cytokines storms and reduce lung inflammation in severely ill Covid-19 patients. However, steroids can suppress the immune response too strongly.
Additionally, an Israeli hospital is among the first to do a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of ivermectin, a drug to treat parasitic infections in people and animals, to see if it can shorten the duration of the disease if given to Covid-19 patients immediately after diagnosis.
Below we summarize 13 potential Israeli treatments using a variety of approaches – such as placenta-derived cells, peptides, blood plasma of recovered patients, and the cannabis compound CBD.
Scientists across the globe are working on vaccines to prevent Covid-19 infection. (Click here to read about six Israeli vaccine candidates.)
But in the meanwhile, and even after initial vaccines are approved, there is an urgent need for effective treatments for the respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Most potential treatments target the life-threatening lung inflammation typical of serious Covid-19 cases. It’s caused by a phenomenon called a “cytokine storm.”
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