Can HIV treatment cure Coronavirus?

Novel Coronavirus

Researchers at Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity have become the first to recreate the virus outside of China. Source: THE PETER DOHERTY INSTITUTE

Get the SBS Audio app

Other ways to listen

With no specific cure or vaccine, it's one of the strategies being used to try to control the outbreak which has killed more than 130 people in China and spread to at least 16 countries, including Australia.


Anti-retroviral drugs developed to treat HIV are being used in China to see if they'll have any effect on the coronavirus. The therapy that was first approved two decades ago to treat HIV combines two antiviral agents. Known as protease inhibitors, they block a key enzyme that helps viruses to replicate.

Listen to  Monday to Friday at 9 pm. Follow us on  and 


Share