A clinical trial conducted in the UK on a simple nitric oxide nasal spray produced by SaNOtize, a British Columbia, Canada based biotech company has shown promising results for covid treatment.

The treatment, a patient self-administered nasal spray showed efficacy in treating Covid 19. Tests also showed that the treatment reduced transmission of the deadly virus by patients who used the spray.

If proven true, this presents a massive breakthrough in the treatment of the deadly virus and could drastically change the trajectory of the deadly pandemic.

During the tests which were conducted at random, the treatment results showed that among the 79 patients treated who had recently tested positive for covid, according to a press release issued by the company

– is >99.9% effective against different types of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (the treatment reduced the presence of the covid 19 virus by as much as 95% within 24 hours and over 99% within 72 hours.)

– prevented the spread of covid to others from the infected persons.

– proved effective against the UK strain of the virus

Nitric Oxide is an already available and widely tested substance, which means that approval for use in treatment should be swift with Israel and New Zealand already reported to have approved its use. Additionally it is a much cheaper treatment than the currently used monoclonal antibody treatments, which are not only expensive and inaccessible to most, but also very specific requiring intravenous application within a hospital setting.

In particular if proven safe, as the study has so far shown, this presents an exciting opportunity for the Pan African universe, which has been left out of the vaccine races and that has still been spared the worst of the pandemic to date.