The Ministry of Health in Thailand during a press briefing has said doctors in Thailand have successfully treated one Wuhan, China coronavirus patient with a combination of antiviral drugs.

Dr. Kriangsak Atipornwanich, a doctor at Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, said he treated a 71-year-old female patient from China with a combination of drugs used in HIV and flu treatments.

According to him, the patient had previously been treated with only anti-HIV drugs.

Atipornwanich said;

I had treated a patient with severe condition, and the result has been very satisfactory. The patient’s condition has improved very quickly within 48 hours. And the test result has also changed from being positive into negative within 48 hours as well.

Officials at the press conference said the latest lab test has showed there’s no trace of the virus in the patient’s respiratory system.

It would be recalled that director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN last week that there were no proven effective drugs to treat the virus.

Hospitals in Beijing have reported using the same drugs given to HIV and AIDs patients as part of treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus, though it is unclear if they have been successful.

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) originating in Wuhan, China, has spread to 24 more countries alarming public health authorities across the world.

As of February 2nd 2020, a total of 17,386 (including China, Hong Kong and Macau) confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection including 362 deaths (including one in the Philippines) have been reported across the world.

Out of the 17,238 confirmed cases in China, 2,296 are reported to be severe cases.