They expect the cheap treatment can keep patients off ventilators.

In the try-out, called ‘Liberate’, fifty per cent of the patients will take ibuprofen in addition to usual care.

The try-out ‘will use a special formulation of ibuprofen rather than the regular tablets that people might usually buy. Some people already take this lipid capsule form of the drug for conditions like arthritis.’

Research in animals propose it might treat acute respiratory distress syndrome – one of the problems of acute coronavirus.

Prof Mitul Mehta, one of the team at King’s College London, said: “We need to do a trial to show that the evidence actually matches what we expect to happen.”

Quick in the pandemic there were some agitation that ibuprofen might be bad for people to take, should they have the virus with mild symptoms.

*These were heightened when France’s health minister Oliver Veran said that taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could aggravate the infection and advised patients to take paracetamol instead.*

A going over by the Commission on Human Medicines quickly ended that, like paracetamol, it was safe to take for coronavirus symptoms. Both can bring a temperature down and help with flu-like symptoms.

Source___BBC News