Medical experts weigh in on highly requested remdesivir drug

The drug is used to treat patients with severe cases of COVID-19.

As always we have team coverage there's an anti- viral drug on the market that's already shown promising signs after treating cases of ebola, sars and other respiratory illnesses.

Kezi 9 news reporter kennedy dendy spoke with experts about how this could treat covid-19 patients and is live to tell us more.

Kennedy, what did you learn?

Chynna, we all want to know when a cure will be found for this virus.

And i spoke to peacehealth's chief medical officer this morning, to learn more about*one treatment option that's known to heal the most*severe cases of covid-19.

It's called remdesivir, and oregon received its first shipments of the drug just last week.

The good news is this... there are currently no patients diagnosed with covid-19 in lane county hospitals.

So right now, there is no immediate need for receiving the drug at the county level.

But that doesn't mean experts aren't already making plans for placing an order if needed.

"it's a drug that has undergone a double blinded placebo controlled trial.

And what it shows indicates that patients who receive remdesivir had a 31% faster time to recovery than those who received the placebo."

The oregon health authority say they received enough of the drug for 80 patients to receive a 10-day treatment.

And dr. halliday says that until lane county needs to put a request in, oregonians need to stay the course.

Continue social distancing, proper hygiene and staying home if you are sick... to keep everyone safe.

Coming up in the five o clock hour, hear what dr. halliday has to say about the*process of receiving this drug at the local level.

Live in springfield, kennedy dendy kezi 9 news.