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A clinical trial conducted by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis of the US shows that fluvoxamine — an anti-depression drug — can prevent the deterioration of mild COVID-19 infections. However, more randomized and controlled studies on larger sample size are needed to verify the drug's clinical efficacy.

The research was published online by JAMA on November 12. It was a double-blind, randomized, completely remote clinical trial. The participants were 152 adults living in the community who were not hospitalized with COVID-19 infections.

None of the 80 infected subjects who received fluvoxamine treatment for 15 days experienced deterioration in their health, while six persons in the placebo group all suffered deterioration, according to the research.

However, due to the small sample size and short follow-up time, the conclusions of the study have certain limitations, the research noted. Therefore, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial with larger sample size is needed to verify fluvoxamine's clinical efficacy.

The infectious disease department of Huashan hospital in Shanghai, led by China's leading infectious disease specialist Zhang Wenhong, forwarded the research on its WeChat account on Tuesday and noted that other clinical trials involving the COVID-19 treatment efficacy of drugs such as Remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine have failed.