Just one week after receiving the lifesaving medication he needed to treat his adenovirus, 7-year-old cancer survivor Josh Hardy is on the road to recovery.
Josh’s mother, Aimee Hardy, wrote on Facebook that the unapproved drug brincidofovir has drastically improved her son’s health.
“Glory to God the medicine is working,” Hardy wrote. “Before Josh took the medicine the adenovirus showed up in his blood in 250,000 log copies. Today after only 2 doses…the log copies are down to 1000! If it stays on this course, it should be gone by next Monday!!!!!” Log copies are a form of measurement for the infection’s viral load or overall severity.
According to Fox News’ Peter Johnson Jr., Josh isn’t completely out of the woods yet, as he is still having problems with his kidneys. But Hardy said her son is more alert and in less pain than before taking the drug.
Josh received national attention when his mother launched a grassroots campaign pleading for access to the drug brincidofovir – an antiviral drug that has been proven to clear up adenovirus in children within two weeks. However, the drug has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Chimerix, the company the manufactures brincidofovir, did not want to give Josh the drug over fears it would interfere with the medication’s approval process.
But after receiving intense criticism over their denial, Chimerix reversed their decision last week and launched a new pilot trial for the drug – with Josh as the program’s first patient.
Over the course of his childhood, Josh has survived four bouts of kidney cancer, heart failure and a bone marrow transplant.