Skip to content

Thursday, Apr. 23, 2020

Have HIV medications been proved effective in combating the 2003 SARS virus?

Caroline Parker, Gigafact
no

There is not enough evidence to prove that antiretroviral HIV medications, particularly Lopinavir and Ritonavir (LPV/r) are effective treatments for SARS. The question lost urgency when SARS receded as a threat in 2004, but as the coronavirus causing the 2020 pandemic is from the same family of virus it has received renewed attention.

The Center for Evidence-Based Medicine reports that while LPV/r treatments have shown some promise in small studies of both COVID-19 and SARS, more research is needed. According to the World Health Organization, studies of HIV medications as antiretroviral agents against SARS and COVID-19 are underway, but certainty of evidence is “very low” due to small sample size and other variables.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.