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A patient who has beaten coronavrius claims there is still no way of knowing if her recovery was aided by a drug she was given.

Claire Fuller, 56, was treated with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine after she was taken into Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) at the end of March.

Hydroxychloroquine has been hailed as a possible breakthrough in the fight against coronavirus by US President Donald Trump, and is one of a series of existing drugs which are being tested across the UK in the fastest growing trial in UK medical history.

Ms Fuller was taken into RD&E on March 31, when her breathing deteriorated ten days after developing a dry cough.

“It was really scary how it just suddenly turned,” she said.

(Image: Getty Images)

Ms Fuller said she was given a dose of eight tablets of hydroxychloroquine before it was cut to two tablets for the remaining four days she was on the Covid-19 ward.

She said that she has no idea whether some of the symptoms she experienced, and her recovery, were due to the infection or were side-effects of the drug.

She said: “I was getting what was like a flushing feeling – a hot, sharp, tingling going through my lungs.

“I don’t know whether this was me responding to the drug or the virus.

“Until they get more people through the trial they will not know. That’s the point of the study.”

Ms Fuller said the only other possible side-effect she suffered was some gastric issues. She is now recovering at home after being discharged a week ago.

She says she simply does not know if her recovery was aided or hastened by the hydroxychloroquine, but encouraged anyone who has the chance to sign up for the trial.

Ms Fuller was one of the first patients to take part in the Exeter arm of the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy (Recovery) trial, which is the largest randomised clinical trial of potential coronavirus treatments in the world.

Recovery, which is being co-ordinated at Oxford University, signed up 1,000 patients from 132 different hospitals in its first 15 days and, according to reports, now has almost 3,000 volunteers.

Recovery is trialling three other drugs as well as hydroxychloroquine.

These are lopinavir-ritonavir, which is normally used to treat HIV; the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in a wide range of conditions to reduce inflammation; and the commonly-used antibiotic azithromycin.