A combination of HIV, swine flu and malarial drugs helped the wife of an Italian tourist to be cured of COVID-19 in Jaipur.

She was shifted from SMS Hospital to Rajasthan University of Health Services (RUHS) on March 12 after testing negative where 11 other people are being kept under observation, health officials said on March 13. Two drugs meant for HIV treatment, chloroquine and Tamiflu were used for her treatment, they said. On March 4, the woman from Italy had tested positive a day after her husband was declared as the first patient to be tested positive in Rajasthan on March 3. The couple had come to India with a 23-member travel group from Italy. After being tested positive for COVID-19, the couple was quarantined at the isolation ward of the SMS Hospital.

SMS doctors first treated her with a combination of two drugs useful in HIV treatment and a combination of Lopinavir 200 mg/Ritonavir 50 mg was given twice a day, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) told IANS. "We also gave her Oseltamivir which is used in swine flu treatment, and chloroquine, used in treatment of malaria," he said, adding that her treatment followed standard protocol and now she has tested negative for disease and hence has been shifted to RUHS.

Her husband is also stable and is on lesser oxygen now, he said, adding that around 11 people are under observation who have not yet tested positive but are all stable. On the 85-year-old Jaipur resident who had tested positive after returning from Dubai, he said that he too is stable.