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Japan plans HIV drug trials for coronavirus; cruise ship evacuations continue

58 Comments
By Sakura Murakami and Ju-min Park

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58 Comments
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In my understanding, HIV and Corona Viruses are not related, but this trial is at least worth a shot. Thinking outside the square...

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Chinese are already using a combination of HIV and some other anti viral drugs to treat users. Maybe it’s time the world can collaborate

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Who in the world is ever going to want to take a cruise ever again! Especially on the Diamond Princess!

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

Again, if someone wants to know the number of cases in Japan by reading this article, he must do a calculation. The Diamond Princess is a cruise, not Japanese territory, despite currently it is in Japanese territory.

-3 ( +9 / -12 )

I think to say there are more than 500 cases in Japan, despite besides 450 are in the cruise, is more impactful than saying the actual number of cases excluded the ones in the cruise. Press adopts fear mongering techniques everywhere, but later accuses the citizens of "mass hysteria".

-3 ( +9 / -12 )

The ship is parked in Yokohama Bay; it's in Japan, these are Japanese cases whether you or anyone else likes it or not. The incessant need to disassociate from the ship that is not only in Japanese territorial waters, you could bloody wave to the quarantined people from the shore is ridiculous. Japan calls the shots on what happens to these people and insisting that these aren't really Japanese cases is xenophobic and meaningless.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

Japan is doing a good job! Don't forget, in the early stages of this drama - Japan was acting on the inept intelligence they had mostly gathered from the Chinese - now well proven to be wrong.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Alex80 - But they are in Japan. When the 1000 or so Japanese passengers who may have the virus are released, can you add those numbers? What about the various Chinese people who were found infected in other countriies? Should they be added to China's number or the country where they are? In every case, excpet Japan, the latter is true. Japan is just trying to keep its number low.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

HIV drugs are being used to treat disease other than AIDs?

Intriguing....

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I wonder if HIV drugs being effective point towards a man made source of this virus.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Japan calls the shots on what happens to these people and insisting that these aren't really Japanese cases is xenophobic and meaningless.

Based on the mental gymnastics, Yokohama isn't really part of japan. I mean the moment you take a swim a few metres offshore, you're practically in a different time zone.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

@Yubaru

I saw an ad for the diamond princess, specialgolden week campain (lol) in the nanboku-sen last week :D

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The ship is in Japan and as are the patients removed from it. It's absurd for Japan to pretend they are not just to keep thier number down. No other country is doing this. Many cases are where Chinese nationals were diagnosed in other countries and they are not added to China's total number.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

There is no cure for ANY Virus. If there was don't you think we could have cured the common cold by now. Hopefully the antiretrovirals used in HIV and Herpes medication (amongst others) used in some form of combination will have a positive effect. Vaccine could be years away.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

human is playing with Frankenstein, CORONAHIV666

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

The Diamond Princess is a UK flagged vessel carrying passengers of multiple nationalties. Unless each one of those passengers disembarks and gets the 30 day visitors stamp in their passports, they have not officially entered Japan. If they have not entered Japan, they can not be included in Japan's infection numbers. A number of sites make this clear and those infected under such circumstances are put in an "OTHER" category rather than a country.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Most of them will be entering Japan this week and, because of the mishandling, most will be infected.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Some comments are embarrassing here. People think it's racist saying that calling "Japanese cases", the infected people in the cruise, is wrong. The cruise is British, the passengers are of many different nationalities and they weren't infected in Japan, but inside the cruise. I just said mixing the numbers of the cruise with the actual cases confirmed in Japanese soil is creating confusion. This kind of journalism isn't helping to understand the real dynamics of how the virus is spreading. Wishing for more transparency and precision in the informations has nothing to do with "racism". I don't see how the cruise is actually part of Japanese territory. If something, the Diamond Princess case gives us a grasp of how problematic can be to handle an infection inside a cruise rather than an idea about the situation inside Japanese territory. I think some people will think about this kind of possibility a little more when they decide to travel by cruise now. Evidently cruises are not prepared to handle these emergencies properly, and they should IMHO.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

There is no cure for ANY Virus.

Hepatitis C is considered curable.

I wonder if HIV drugs being effective point towards a man made source of this virus.

Nope. It merely points towards the fact that both HIV and the novel coronavirus are both single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA viruses that share fundamental features in their enzymatic machinery and can therefore hopefully be targeted by the same drugs.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@SoylentGreen: Now, yours sounds more like a wishful thinking. I don't get people like you.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

@OssanAmerica: I saw an article on Korean press that called this cruise "Japanese", despite it's British. Intentional misinformation?

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

Dont forget Diamond Princess is actually owned by an American company. Objectively, it isn't related in any way to Japan except for the fact it's in Japanese waters.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

Alex80, Japan should have removed everyone and tested them immediately. Leaving them on the ship for them all to catch it was reckless. That’s why America moved in. They said Japan’s quarantine ‘failed’. We need to be concerned about the virus and people not whether the ship is actually in Japan or not. Focus on what is important here; people’s health and lives, not Japan’s image abroad.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Alex80 “Dont forget Diamond Princess is actually owned by an American company. Objectively, it isn't related in any way to Japan except for the fact it's in Japanese waters.”. So ? What about Chinese nationals who were found with the virus in Singapore or other countries? They should all be added to China’s count?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

The ultimate beneficial owner of Daimond Princess is American.

The operator of the vessel is American (although they have global offices)

The vessel is registered in Britain.

(It's like a Brit or American owning a car in Japan.)

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Not related to Japan? First of all, like half of the passengers are Japanese.

And being in Japanese waters (docked in a Japanese port, more accurately) is literally being in Japan in every sense of the word except they are currently touching Japanese soil. They're subject to Japanese laws and regulations and Japan is "responsible" for these people as much as anybody on Japanese main land. The Japanese government seems to understand this, not sure why you can't. Countries are repatriating their citizens from the ship on a voluntary basis. You can argue weather or not the cruise owners/operators will eventually shoulder some responsibility but mostly the infection rate is so high due to the nature of cruise ships in general rather than any specific reason. Quarantining the ship in Japanese waters was a no-brainer for the Japanese government and health officials, what you think they should have sent it out to sea perhaps? Accepting cruise ships to port means you accept that this is a possibility.

The ship is Japan's responsibility for the time being. Which, let us not forget, the Japanese government and the majority of people understand and accept. Only a few fringe nationalist groups and conspiracy theorists are trying to pass the buck on these people (most of which are Japanese citizens, d'oh).

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Why do passengers from other countries who test negative have an additional 14-day quarantine, but Japanese passengers who test negative are free to go home?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

This sucks for the cruise line industry. I wonder how many volunteers will be signing up for the Peace Boat now?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

A quarantine officer was infected when working on the cruise. Ultimately, all cases are In Japan. Patients are now in hospitals here.

At least Japan does the job. Cambodia announced all passengers on the cruise the country accepted were disease free, but the following day, an American woman was tested positive in Malaysia. Other passengers could certainly be infected and spread the disease. All countries are not and can not be on the same wave, therefore virus will spread

i think every country makes drug trial on critically ill patients. HIV drugs have proven effective in Thailand. But my question is. Is the drug really effective or the patient would have recovered anyway?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Another 88 people from that boat were confirmed with coronavirus today (Tuesday), bringing the ship-based total to 542, or 1 in 7, or about 15% of total passengers.

Percentage wise, that boat, by far, is the most infected place on earth for this virus.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Japan land has 66 cases with a few clusters registering the bulk of them.

Please calm down and wash you hands!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Wasn't Thailand working on something like this a couple weeks back?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

A very informative, scientific and reliable site separates clearly the Diamond Princess and Japan inland cases:

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/publichealth/84698

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Not related to Japan?

For example; there are embassies in Japan. But inside of embassy is not in Japan. It means it is not under Japan's law/rule. Ship seems like embassy. so the ship's captain only can decide everything; what is best for passengers in the ship. The half of passengers are Japanese in the ship, so J government admitted the ship anchored to Yokohama port for quarantine. At that time Japan could disembark Japanese only from the ship and after that it could kick the ship out of Japan. But Japan did not it, because it is against humanity. It seems to me Japan had no other choice it has to take care of all passengers as possible as it can. When their nations noticed all passengers are too many for Japan to take good care of them, they should have evacuated their citizens soon.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Japan land has 66 cases with a few clusters registering the bulk of them.

There are 7 new cases in Japan today (other than those on the boat), so the total is now 73.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Wow. Thought we were talking about HIV medication

, not who is on first, what’s on second , I don’t know on the third base

don’t worry about the ..... numbers. US , Canada , Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea will gladly add to their total infected numbers

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan is bit late on this process Countries like India and China were already doing it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Fighto

The Coronavirus expresses proteins similar to HIV-1. The Chinese have been using HIV meds as a part of the cocktail for treating the illness

1 ( +1 / -0 )

garbonzo (sic):

Japan is doing a good job! Don't forget, in the early stages of this drama - Japan was acting on the inept intelligence they had mostly gathered from the Chinese - now well proven to be wrong.

So, it was the Chinese who were telling the Japanese authorities they had no right to quarantine those two Japanese citizens who returned from Wuhan and decided not to stick around but walk off into the sunset?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@SoylentGreen: people like you are apparently obsessed with Japan image abroad. Honestly, who cares about that? I am not even Japanese. I think we need accurate figures related to the spread of the virus inside the Country, but if you mix that with the numbers of the cruise it's confusing. I would say the same if this cruise was in American, Italian or Greek waters. Which is your point? Here some people are really obsessed with appearance when I am speaking about a totally different thing. I am not even speaking about how Japanese government handled the situation in the cruise, that's another topic.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@savethegaijin: you misunderstood completely my posts too. Here some people are obsessed by politics all the time. I was speaking about the spread of the virus, and mixing the cases in the cruise with the cases inside the Country is CONFUSING under this point of view. I wasn't speaking about who should handle the cruise or whatever. I don't even know how international laws handle this kind of situations so I won't speak about what I don't know, and I am not even interested in that. But many articles calling also the cruise cases "Japanese cases" are creating so much confusion about the spread of the illness in Japan. Every time I get confused.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

OMG, coronavirus has nothing to do with sex, as simple as that.

Japan needs to identify the source of virus first, or it will be too late.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

If this virus was tinkered with to splice HIV elements into it we would never be told anyway. I hope the doctors can help these poor people.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Save the Gaijin san,

And being in Japanese waters (docked in a Japanese port, more accurately) is literally being in Japan in every sense of the word except they are currently touching Japanese soil. They're subject to Japanese laws and regulations and Japan is "responsible" for these people as much as anybody on Japanese main land.

Repeating the same mistake over and over again is not going to make it true.

The vessel is registered in GB, which makes it British soil. End of story.

This is GB's responsibility.

I do not think that GB has done anything to help alleviate the squalid conditions on board. I am sure they have representatives in Japan.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The virus can stay up 9 hours on any object touch by an infected, even a item in a store, fruit, vegetables or even a beverage container, a Yen bank note, how hand do a yen go through, before it reaches,you in your wallet or purse, even a sushi roll can be contaminated by the virus, a public toilet,a Starbucks beverage container, up to 10 hours, it can live on objects

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Repeating the same mistake over and over again is not going to make it true.

Japanese territorial waters mate. Not GB.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Japan needs to identify the source of virus first, or it will be too late.

They already know it came from China. That’s not helping.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Fighto! @Alex80 well said guys! and I do support combining those two vaccinations. And not to nitpick Fighto!, but the saying goes, “think outside the box”, not “think outside the square”. But everything else that you said was right on the money.

Yeah, considering how serious this virus is, why not go for unorthodox methods? Especially considering the fact that there’s apparently success regarding this. not to mention how fast that it’s spreading, and how high to death toll is already. By all means, go unorthodox if necessary.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The vessel is registered in GB, which makes it British soil. End of story.

This is GB's responsibility.

International maritime law does not quite work like that.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3X3RSmf7ds&feature=youtu.be

For those supporting Japan's planning here, watch the above video from Iwata Kentaro Phd who went on the ship yesterday. Above is Japanese and below English,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjyMZYt4YDA

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Wellington

That's not how that works, actually. While you may argue that GB is a British Ship, Carnival an American Company, the ship is in Japanese waters and is subject to Japanese law - period. I don't know why this is hard for people to understand. How far do you go with this if you're talking moral responsibility for the ship's welfare? It's a British ship, maybe it's theirs? The company is American, theirs then? Most of the passengers are Japanese, perhaps theirs? The virus originated in China, so maybe their responsibility?

This is exactly why maritime law and water territory sovereignty exists. The bloody boat is in Japan.

End of story.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Why do you guys wasting time on if the ship is in Japanese water or international water ,what... is difference?

Who do you see at the entrance of the ship? do you see U.S Military? do you see Hong Kong police?

Man, why do some people avoid the obvious? it's ok, people,government mess up, no government is perfect,

the main problem is that Japanese public do not comment negatively against their government so that government does business as usual.

If you see something is wrong , you need to speak out, demand change,

but again, i am probably wasting time saying this...................

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Only good for mild cases so still no hope for seriously sick patients.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Is HIV medicine more usefull than Sars medicine ???.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This virus is a cross between HIV and Ebola - it's currently the mother of all viruses. Once you get it, you may sort of recover... but the virus (by its very nature) remains in your body waiting to spring into life again. The HIV drug cocktail, will just as it does for those who are HIV positive, keep the virus from developing to the next stage (AIDS in former case), but they won't cure the virus.... just suppress it enough to become less of a problem for others around you.

Please avoid those around you who look unwell, and stay safe & get fit. Walk more use trains & buses less until this virus is really brought under control.... Good luck!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@mmwkdw

This virus is a cross between HIV and Ebola - it's currently the mother of all viruses.

It sounds like this is man-made virus like HIV was also probably man-made. It originated in China near virus research facility in Wuhan. Circumstantial evidence suggests China made this virus, and it got out of the research facility.

Once you get it, you may sort of recover... but the virus (by its very nature) remains in your body waiting to spring into life again. The HIV drug cocktail, will just as it does for those who are HIV positive, keep the virus from developing to the next stage (AIDS in former case), but they won't cure the virus.... just suppress it enough to become less of a problem for others around you.

That doesn't seem very promising. Based on your explanation, we will need to avoid other people forever, or almost everyone in the world will eventually get it.

And the companies that produce this drug cocktail that suppresses this virus will be making money forever with the whole world as their customers. Not to mention companies manufacturing protective gear like Hazmat suits and face masks.

That seems like a lot of power and leverage in the hands of a few pharmaceutical companies.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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