‘No special drug used to treat 4-year-old coronavirus patient’

PUTRAJAYA: No special drug or antiviral medicine was used to treat the four-year-old girl from China who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) here in Malaysia.

The girl who was admitted at a hospital in Langkawi has completely recovered from the infection.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said at a press conference yesterday that the girl was cured when they treated her symptoms.

The girl is the first of 12 patients in Malaysia to have been completely cured from the virus.

Dr Dzulkefly said the girl, who was tested twice in a span of more than 24 hours, tested negative.

“No special drug or antiviral medicine was used. Medical experts have said the 2019-nCoV is self-limiting, whereby our antibodies will end the virus’ life cycle.

“So there is no special antiviral drug, but we have treated the patients here well. Even in China, more than 800 have recovered.

“This, therefore, debunks the myth that once you contract the disease, you’ll go into a fatal state or get a bad prognosis,” he said, adding that the girl’s flight arrangements to return home to China were being taken care of by the Chinese embassy.

Dr Dzulkefly said most of the other patients were in stable condition and the ministry had been receiving regular updates from clinicians at Sungai Buloh Hospital.

“There are elderly patients who aren’t doing as well as the others, but their condition is not so much related to the disease per se.

“We’ve done tests and are monitoring their development.”

Source: NST