Even as the experts from the medical field are rushing against the clock to find a cure for the fatal COVID-19, Dr Vladimir Zelenko, a board-certified family practitioner based in New York, claims to have successfully healed around 500 patients using a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin (Z-Pak), zinc sulfate.

While the global number of confirmed coronavirus infections inched dangerously close to 800,000, Unites States, the new epicentre of COVID-19, has reported more than 160,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths.

Zelenko based his treatment on a therapy used in China and South Korea

Zelenko who claimed that none of his patients died while being treated for COVID-19 said that he made the concoction of drugs based on the therapy being used by South Korea and China while treating their patients. During an interview with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on his show, the doctor revealed that from past one week he has been rendering treatment to the COVID-19 confirmed patients at Kiryas Joel, a New York village.

"I've had zero patients died, zero patients intubated and three currently admitted with pneumonia. I've treated 450 to 500 patients, one third of which were from outside (the village)," he said.

"I blended the two treatments from South Korea and France and made a three drug regimen which are hydroxychloroquine, which is the common denominator by both treatments, then I used zinc, and azithromycin. The virus gets inside the cell and begins to hijack the cell industrial machinery. It is well known that zinc interrupts that. So, the concept is that it interferes in the replication of the virus," said Dr Zelenko while revealing about his course of treatment.

"But the problem with zinc is that it does not get inside the cell very easily, only very small percent gets in. What is interesting is that hydroxychloroquine is a ionic core; so it is the key that opens the canal and facilitates the work of the zinc. When you have a severe viral infection, it is well known that you can get a secondary infection, so I believe the zithromax is there as a precaution and if there begins a bacteria process, it kills it before it causes a bigger problem," he went on to add.

FDA approves distribution of anti-malarial drug to hospitals

US Food and Drug Administration gave an emergency approval to a Trump administration plan of distributing doses of anti-malarial drugs to the US hospitals to help cure the coronavirus cases. According to Washington Post the FDA said that it is worth the risk of trying unproven treatments to slow the progression of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in seriously ill patients.

Even though the tests to check the authenticity of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in battling and curing coronavirus cases are still underway, it has been used in the treatment of COVID patients in South Korea and China. In a letter granting emergency approval of the drug, FDA's chief scientist, Denise Hinton wrote: "It is reasonable to believe that chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate may be effective in treating covid-19."

Speaking to the publication about the ill-effects of the drug in patients suffering from heart related ailments, Michael Ackerman, a pediatric cardiologist and professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science said: "The concern really is if we're talking millions of patients, then this issue of drug-induced sudden cardiac death is absolutely going to rear its ugly head."