Since December, 2019, a pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerged in Wuhan, China, effective treatment continues to elude researchers, while it’s spread to more than 84,000 people worldwide, claiming the lives of nearly 3,100 so far.
In U.S. news, one of the first laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the states was an Illinois woman who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. Later, her husband would also be diagnosed with what is now officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization.
Presently, there is a lack of effective targeted antiviral drugs for the virus, and symptomatic supportive treatment is still the current main treatment.
A lack of vitamin C has been long known to increase susceptibility to viruses, and a few studies have shown that vitamin C deficiency is related to the increased risk and severity of influenza infections.
Vitamin C is significant to the human body and plays a role in reducing inflammatory response and also helps to boost the immune system when you are ill with a cold or the flu. Supporting various cellular functions of both the innate and adaptive immune system, vitamin C is well known for its contribution to the body’s immune defense.
China is conducting a clinical trial of 24,000 mg/day of intravenous vitamin C to treat patients with coronavirus and severe respiratory complications.
Administering high doses of vitamin C by way of IV therapy delivers this powerful antioxidant directly into the bloodstream and is generally well tolerated by most people. Because intravenous administration of vitamin C has a higher absorption rate than when taken orally through supplementation, resulting in higher concentrations in the blood, IV therapy is considered a more effective method of delivering high doses of vitamin C to the body.
Insufficient vitamin C intake is a global problem that can be addressed with proper nutrition and supplementation. With even modest amounts of supplemental vitamin C, deaths will decrease. In a study, modest amounts of supplemental vitamin C (200 mg of vitamin C per day) resulted in an 80% decrease in deaths among severely ill, hospitalized respiratory disease patients.