Antiseptic throat spray, malaria drug may check COVID spread

SINGAPORE: Using a type of antiseptic throat spray, and an oral drug used to treat malaria and arthritis, have been found effective in curbing the spread of coronavirus, according to a new study.

The six-week long study, led by researchers from the National University Hospital ( NUH) in Singapore, involved more than 3,000 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar living in Tuas South dormitory, the Channel News Asia reported.

The results showed that among those who used throat spray thrice a day, only 46 per cent contracted the disease. This is compared to 49 per cent among those who took hydroxy chloroquine and 70 per cent who took vitamin C.

The two drugs were chosen because they are easily available, said Seet, adding that they protect the throat, the “key entry” for viruses. The findings are published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the report said.

“We concluded that povidone-iodine throat spray was associated with a statistically significant reduction in infection by an absolute risk of reduction of 24 percent while oral hydroxy chloroquine was associated with a statistically significant reduction in infection by an absolute risk of reduction of 21 per cent,” lead author Raymond Seet, Associate Professor at the NUH was quoted as saying.

However, the researchers stressed that the drugs are not meant to be used for COVID-19 prevention in the general community if it is a lower-risk seting, the report said.

“This is a very simple intervention with virtually minimal side effects where we could actually cut the transmission rates in a meaningful way,” Mikael Hartman, Associate Professor from the NUH was quoted as saying.

“This is the first study to demonstrate the benefits of prophylactic, or preventive therapy with either oral hydroxychloroquine or povidone-iodine throat spray in reducing SARS-COV-2 infection among quarantined individuals living in a closed and high exposure seting,” Seet said.

Cancer, low income raised anxiety in women On the other hand, women who have gynecologic cancer and low income reported having more anxiety and financial distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study.

For the study, Y. Stefanie Chen and her team from the Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City conducted telephonic interviews with 100 women with gynecologic cancer living in New York City who were covered by Medicaid health insurance.

They found that 50 per cent of the patients reported feeling more financial stress since the start of the pandemic, while 54 per cent said they worry about future financial problems due to the pandemic.

Nearly 50 per cent of patients expressed increased anxiety about cancer since the start of the pandemic, while 83 per cent expressed feeling increased anxiety in general.

Having an income less than $40,000 per year was the most common factor associated with increased financial distress, cancer worry and anxiety. Early-stage cancer (Stage I-II) was also a risk factor for increased financial distress.

“Patients with cancer are already financially vulnerable as many face changes in employment status when they undergo treatment, and also because cancer treatments can become costly as they accrue over time,” said Chen.

“Patients with low income may struggle to prioritise cancer care and treatments over other costs of daily living, especially when they face changes in employment, not only due to their cancer diagnosis, but also because of the changes in the job market caused by the pandemic,” Chen added.

The findings have been published online in the peer-reviewed journal CANCER.

Chen supports increased screening for anxiety and financial stress in these patients.

“Understanding the complexity of finances, mental health and cancer treatments in this population is crucial for the development of interventions and navigation strategies to ensure timely care and to promote survivorship among patients with all stages of cancer,” she said.

Over 1.2 million coronavirus genomes have been sequenced from 172 countries and territories and shared on the GISAID (the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data) data plaform.

The sequenced data have been crucial to scientists studying the origins of SARS-COV-2, the virus causing Covid-19 outbreaks, and the movement of viral variants across the planet, Nature reported.

“Because countries are submiting data from so many parts of the world, you have a system where we can watch how the virus spreads through the world, and see if control measures and the vaccines still work,” Sebastian Maurer-stroh, a Singapore-based scientific adviser at the GISAID -- a German non-profit organisation.

GISAID was launched in 2016 as a database for sharing flu genomes. The first SARS-COV-2 genome was added to the database in January 2020 from China. It was followed by Africa, Australia, the UK, and other countries, and now there are viral sequences from 172 different countries.

Some wealthy countries have uploaded huge numbers of sequences -- the US has shared 303,359 sequences, while the UK shared 379,510 sequences.