The US President Donald Trump was airlifted to hospital on Friday by his Marine One helicopter, as insiders said that his condition is now “serious.”
The President is said to be suffering with a fever, severe fatigue and nasal congestion that has left him struggling to breathe.
White House staff are said to be keenly aware that patients with the virus can see their condition suddenly take a “serious” turn for the worse.
CNN quoted a government advisor as saying that there is a “reason for concern” as Trump had “trouble breathing,” and added that his situation “is serious” and the President is “very tired, very fatigued.,” but in “good spirits.”
Trump is seriously overweight and classed as obese, he is 74-years old, likes to eat a lot of cheeseburgers and is in the high “at risk” category for serious complications from virus.
In an attempt to protect the President’s immune system doctors at the military Walter Reed Medical Centre in Maryland are giving Trump an experimental antibody treatment called Remdesivir.
President Trump’s Dr Sean Conley said Remdesivir is being given “as a precautionary measure” and he will be given this for the next five days. He is also taking zinc, vitamin D, an antacid called famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.
Professor Peter Horby, who specialises in emerging infectious diseases at Oxford University and is co-chief investigator of the Recovery trial said that the drug President Trump is now on is “very promising” and the drug is also “very potent.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday Professor Horby said, “The class of drugs, these artificial antibodies, have been around for quite a while now, and they’ve been extensively used in inflammatory conditions and cancers, and they’re pretty safe and well understood, and so the technology is something that I think we have confidence in.
“This particular drug has probably been given to, I would think now, four or five hundred patients, mild or severe patients in different trials, and so far there’s been no worrying safety signals.
“In the laboratory, in cell cultures it has a very strong effect against the virus, and there have been studies in artificial animals where it also shows benefits. So probably of the drugs that are available, it’s one of the most promising.”
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