An experimental drug may cure long Covid, medics believe after a 59-year-old man given the medicine saw his symptoms fade within hours.  

Doctors at a hospital in Germany gave the drug — originally designed to fight heart failure — to treat the patient's glaucoma.

The team thought the way the medication works could also help to combat the eye disease, which can eventually lead to blindness. 

They then realised the BC 007 drug could also be of use in fighting off long Covid because it neutralises auto-antibodies, which attack the body and are common in coronavirus survivors plagued with persistent symptoms.

The unidentified man's lasting symptoms — fatigue, loss of taste and concentration problems — all improved rapidly.

Doctors in Bavaria who treated him said: 'Even within a few hours an improvement became apparent.'  

Scientists who made the discovery will now trial the drug to determine if its success at curing long-Covid symptoms can be repeated. 

Little is known about long-Covid — an umbrella term encompassing symptoms that persist for more than a month. 

Different studies have estimated that between 10 and 75 per cent of Covid patients suffer from the condition — including up to 2million Britons. 

Scientists have found that sufferers have higher numbers of auto-antibodies, which are proteins produced by the immune system that attack organs.