This article needs more reliable medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources .(July 2020) |
Alternative medicine | |
---|---|
Modality | Injection |
Claims | Treatment against dengue, chikungunya, dog bite, snakebite, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19 |
Original proponents | Ruben and Willie Fabunan |
The Fabunan Antiviral Injection (FAI) is a patented medicine administered to patient/s by US-based Filipino doctors Ruben and Willie Fabunan, who assured that it can treat dengue fever, chikungunya, dog bite, snakebite, and HIV/AIDS. [1]
Fabunan contains procaine hydrochloride, a water-soluble ester anesthetic, and dexamethasone sodium phosphate, a corticosteroid with well-known anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant properties. [2] The solution is intended to be administered as an intramuscular injection.
The patent application cites six case studies for conditions such as dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever and AIDS, which were all conducted at the Fabunan Medical Clinic in Burgos. To date, no registered clinical trials of the Fabunan Antiviral Injection have been performed to validate the Fabunans' claims.
Recent claims promoted on social media that it can cure COVID-19 are not supported by the Philippine government, which has issued a cease and desist order to Fabunan Medical Clinic in Zambales, prompting the clinic to stop its operations on April 2. [3] [4] On April 15, 2020, the fact-checking website Rappler warned against false claims on YouTube and Facebook that the so-called treatment had been approved, and pointed out that on April 8, 2020, the FDA warned the public against the use of drugs or vaccines that are not yet certified to treat COVID-19, particularly the Fabunan Antiviral Injection. [5] Similarly, claims popularly spread in YouTube videos in June 2020 that Fabunan has been approved in Indonesia have been demonstrated to be false. [6]
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. It is frequently asymptomatic; if symptoms appear they typically begin 3 to 14 days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin itching and skin rash. Recovery generally takes two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into a more severe dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.
Enfuvirtide (INN), sold under the brand name Fuzeon, is an HIV fusion inhibitor, the first of a class of antiretroviral drugs used in combination therapy for the treatment of AIDS/HIV.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and COVID-19, including ledipasvir/sofosbuvir and sofosbuvir. Gilead is a member of the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index and the S&P 500.
Ganciclovir, sold under the brand name Cytovene among others, is an antiviral medication used to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections.
Umifenovir, sold under the brand name Arbidol, is an antiviral medication for the treatment of influenza and COVID infections used in Russia and China. The drug is manufactured by Pharmstandard. It is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment or prevention of influenza.
Rilpivirine, sold under the brand names Edurant and Rekambys, is a medication, developed by Tibotec, used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is a second-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) with higher potency, longer half-life and reduced side-effect profile compared with older NNRTIs such as efavirenz.
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. The company is a late stage biotech company that focuses on oral drugs for rare and serious diseases. BioCryst's antiviral drug peramivir (Rapivab) was approved by FDA in December 2014. It has also been approved in Japan, Korea, and China.
Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Pune. Emcure's product portfolio includes tablets, capsules and injectables. The company is a major producer of HIV antivirals, as well as gynaecology and blood therapeutic drugs.
Favipiravir, sold under the brand name Avigan among others, is an antiviral medication used to treat influenza in Japan. It is also being studied to treat a number of other viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2. Like the experimental antiviral drugs T-1105 and T-1106, it is a pyrazinecarboxamide derivative.
Dengue vaccine is a vaccine used to prevent dengue fever in humans. Development of dengue vaccines began in the 1920s, but was hindered by the need to create immunity against all four dengue serotypes. As of 2023, there are two commercially available vaccines, sold under the brand names Dengvaxia and Qdenga.
NITD008 is an antiviral drug classified as an adenosine analog. It was developed as a potential treatment for flavivirus infections and shows broad spectrum antiviral activity against many related viruses such as dengue virus, West Nile virus, yellow fever virus, Powassan virus, hepatitis C virus, Kyasanur Forest disease virus, Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus, and Zika virus. However, NITD008 proved too toxic in pre-clinical animal testing to be suitable for human trials, but it continues to be used in research to find improved treatments for emerging viral diseases.
Remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, is a broad-spectrum antiviral medication developed by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. It is administered via injection into a vein. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, remdesivir was approved or authorized for emergency use to treat COVID‑19 in numerous countries.
Raymond F. Schinazi is an American organic medicinal chemist at Emory University with expertise in antiviral agents, pharmacology, and biotechnology. His research focuses on developing treatments for infections caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), herpes, dengue fever, zika, chikungunya, and other emerging viruses. These treatment options include antiviral agents as well as synthetic, biochemical, pharmacological and molecular genetic approaches, including molecular modeling and gene therapy.
COVID-19 drug development is the research process to develop preventative therapeutic prescription drugs that would alleviate the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). From early 2020 through 2021, several hundred drug companies, biotechnology firms, university research groups, and health organizations were developing therapeutic candidates for COVID-19 disease in various stages of preclinical or clinical research, with 419 potential COVID-19 drugs in clinical trials, as of April 2021.
Tomáš Cihlář is a Czech biochemist known for his role in the development of remdesivir. A specialist in virology, Cihlář holds the positions of Senior Director, Biology, and Vice-President at American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. As a student, Cihlář assisted fellow biochemist Antonín Holý in developing Viread, the primary drug used to fight HIV infection.
Molnupiravir, sold under the brand name Lagevrio, is an antiviral medication that inhibits the replication of certain RNA viruses. It is used to treat COVID‑19 in those infected by SARS-CoV-2. It is taken by mouth.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in the Philippines is an ongoing mass immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country. The vaccination program was initiated by the Duterte administration on March 1, 2021, a day after the arrival of the country's first vaccine doses which were donated by the Chinese government.
Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines consists of disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic propagated by various sources.
Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug that is well established for use in animals and people. The World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) all advise against using ivermectin in an attempt to treat or prevent COVID-19.