Ray of hope for Covid-19 patients

The newly introduced monoclonal antibody cocktail injection has come as a blessing in disguise to Covid19 patients, going by the marked improvement in their condition without any need for hospitalisation.

Doctors administering the drug said antibodies are proteins that the body generates to defend itself against any disease. Monoclonal antibodies are artificially created in a laboratory and devised to fight a particular disease.

The antibody cocktail drug being administered to the patients now is a combination of two injections known as casirivimab and imdevimab, which are distributed by popular drug firm Cipla.

The antibody cocktail can be administered for adult patients with mild to moderate symptoms if they are at high risk of developing severe Covid19 infection, said Dr MCS Reddy, consultant physician at Apollo Hospitals in Nellore, a designated Covid Hospital.

Dr Reddy said doctors gave the cocktail injection to 10 patients at their hospital in Nellore and all are doing fine sans complications.

One of the beneficiaries is the mother of a senior official. The injection was administered to the 70-year-old woman with comorbidities on June 3, shortly after she was detected Covid-positive. She was tested negative by June 8.

y, all the 10 patients were treated on a daycare basis and no side-effect has been noticed.

Dr Reddy said the therapy would reduce chances of hospitalization by 70 per cent vis-a-vis patients with mild to moderate Covid19 symptoms.

Patients who were given the cocktail antibody injections do not require hospitalization and symptomatic relief was noted in all patients within 48 hours.

The drug, which costs around `70,000, is recommended for all high-risk patients aged above 60 years and not in need of oxygen therapy. In addition, this can also be given to patients below 60