We Have A Voice is a Huntington’s Disease community group which has its own online radio broadcast. Yesterday, We Have A Voice hosted two specialists who’ve been working on COVID-19 and putting the pieces together regarding a range of issues. Huntington’s Disease and many other patients are right at the top of the high risk groups, so this is a very important general discussion.
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Laurence CHU, AFP
The information was jaw-dropping, to say the least. You really do need to listen this mindblowing current information about COVID-19. It’s startling, but it shows how much work is being done right now.
Issues covered included:
• HCQ (hydroxychloroquine), the much-debated antimalarial drug touted as a treatment for COVID-19. The method of delivery used by one of the specialists, Dr. Ansgar Klimke, was aerosol delivery. This type of delivery has multiple potential uses, including direct delivery to affected tissues and organs, and much more efficient use of materials. HCQ apparently slows replication of the virus, which is truly extremely useful. This approach also reduces the risks of side effects known to occur with HCQ
• Neurological symptoms of COVID-19 as high risk indicators. In medicine, anything including the word “neuro” means trouble. It’s particularly pertinent to high vulnerability patients with pre-existing conditions, obviously. Neurological issues are also prevalent in Italy, one of the hottest spots in the world for COVID-19. An Italian doctor in Milan (ground zero in Italy) has reported a number of serious cases involving neurological symptoms. There’s some pretty tough, demanding, pathology involved, too.
• Immunity and COVID-19. Tests indicate that the virus may remain in the body for several days after recovery. This means the recovered patients may or may not be potentially infectious. That’s very relevant for nurses and doctors who’ve recovered and want to get back to work. (You’re advised to undertake tests to ensure you’re OK before restarting work.) It’s also relevant for recovered patients who may unwittingly pose a risk in households and the workplace.
Tricky? Yes.
As you may have gathered, this virus is a versatile thing. The mere fact that it seems to have multiple areas of infection (pulmonary and neurological) isn’t good. HCQ may well be a first step in finding an effective anti-bonding agent to stop its reproduction in infected people, but it’s not a cure.
The questions are getting trickier:
Can COVID-19 be as much of a neurological pest as it is as a pulmonary infection? Is the Italian strain worse or just the local form? It may be a local strain or not, but can the global viruses morph into that strain? (You really don’t want to know what a neurological “plague” can do.)
Is aerosol delivery the more effective delivery option? It seems so from the preliminary work. It also makes sense to work directly on the affected tissues rather than going through the hit-or-miss tablet ingestion method. It may also help to deliver cures with much less “logistics” than conventional vaccines. Avoiding the too-many side effects of HCQ is also a big plus.
World first objectives in sight
With this virus creating havoc, and threatening a global Mega-Depression, there are several opportunities here:
1. Make COVID-19 the very first virus to be totally eradicated. It’s never been done before with a virus.
2. Create viral management plan to stop these things in their tracks whenever they appear.
3. Full, thorough research into viral strain variants. There’s plenty of virus to go round in the research labs. These variants are very interesting, as well as very dangerous. Maybe we can finally get a grip on how viruses mutate, and how to stop them and perhaps neutralize the mutations.
Let’s face it – The world was enough of a mess before anyone ever heard of COVID-19. It has added injury to insult on a global scale. A few bits of annoying DNA and RNA shouldn’t be running the world.
A lot of ideas, from aerosols to copper, have been suggested as possible options. The world has nothing to do right now, so why not try them all?
