Is Covid-19 treatment based on trial and error?
With due respect and regard for our doctors and frontline workers who have risked their life in treating patients, there are doubts, unanswered questions on the treatment given to covid patients — some lost their life, many survivors are faced with dread
As the number of COVID-19 cases in India soar, so does information (and misinformation) about the treatment protocols, adding to the strain, confusion and feeling of helplessness among patients and caregivers.
There are many contradicting views. Questions have been raised about combinations of repurposed and experimental medicines recommended by healthcare practitioners as a one-size-fits-all solution.
Researchers, medical practitioners, and citizens have been debating if the over-prescription of drugs is responsible for the rising health complications among COVID-19 patients.
Top-notch doctors address the many issues people are raising on the pros and cons of various
treatment options.
It’s been over a year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, but the world is still trying to find ways to conquer it. The second wave has been more destructive than the first one. Many lives have been lost.
The disease is new, the virus itself seems to be evolving, and so is the knowledge about it, and consequently, the best ways of handling it can only be arrived at by a process of trial, and possibly, error.
Researchers, medical practitioners, and citizens have been debating if the over-prescription of drugs is responsible for the rising health complications among COVID-19 patients.
An overall look at the situation indicates that doctors are prescribing up to a dozen medicines for even mild cases of COVID-19; antibiotics like azithromycin and doxycycline are being commonly advised despite significant clinical trials having found no evidence of their efficacy; the World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that there is no evidence to suggest that the antiviral drug Remdesivir is useful in treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients; Plasma therapy has been dropped as a treatment for the disease after a Government panel found it ‘ineffective’; and drugs that have proven benefits in managing the infection are often prescribed at inappropriate clinical stages of the disease – for instance, steroids like dexamethasone and methylprednisolone benefit only patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, but many doctors prescribe them for patients with mild infections.
MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY THERAPY – PROVEN EFFICACY
“Many things are clear now. The therapy scientifically proven to be most effective is the use of monoclonal antibodies within seven days of disease onset. This is used only for mild and moderate cases of COVID-19, and prevents these cases from turning severe. It is found effective even on patients above 65 years and those who have diabetes, or kidney and cardiac problems,” says Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and AIG Hospitals.
Lately, 2-DG, a dru oped by India’s Research Development Organ (DRDO), has been in th as a possible savi
COVID-19 infections. Talking about the pr endorsement, Dr G. S Reddy, DRDO, chie
“Phase-2 trials were d
110 patients from May Oct 2020. Safety was v established and verifie independent DSM Efficacy was found to highly significant in Based on these highly aging results, DCGI g mission for Phase-3
Phase-3 trials were don patients from Novemb to May 2021 in 27 h throughout the countr has given Emergen Authorisation for its adjunct therapy in mod severe covid patients.”
Sudhir Chandna, Scientist INMAS Additional Director explains that “the p efficacy endpoint analy shown that 42% of p treated with 2-DG plu dard care were able to of oxygen dependence, pared to 31% patients
An overall look at the situation indicates that doctors are prescribing up to a dozen medicines for even mild cases of COVID-19; antibiotics like azithromycin and
doxycycline are being commonly advised despite significant clinical trials having found no evidence of their
efficacy
Chief
and DRDO, primary ysis has patients us stano be free , as comin standard
Chief Scientist INMAS and Additional Director DRDO
care.” He adds that patients with controlled diabetes were among those enrolled in the trial of the prescribed dose (45 mg/kg twice a day), and the drug was found to be safe in these patients too. “Uncontrolled diabetics were
excluded from the trials, and the drug is not recommended for them,” he cautions.
Giving his views on treatment option, Nageshwar Reddy says, “2DG is potentially a good drug in patients who this
Dr require oxygen. It is an old drug used for cancer patients, where the cells divide rapidly.”