Scenic Mountain Medical Center preparing to administer new Covid-19 treatment

Last month Governor Greg Abbott issued a press release stating that doses of Covid-19 vaccine and treatments would be making their way to Texas over the next few weeks. In a press conference held earlier this week, Scenic Mountain Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Rohith Saravanan, M.D. M.B.A. announced that the local hospital (SMMC) has received 35 doses of the new antibody montoclopial treatments, and will begin administering treatments in the next week or so.

“(The treatment) is an infusion and normally is a couple hours process. It’s not just a come in to the office, get a shot and go,” Dr. Saravanan said. “There is a lot of preparation that goes into setting up the treatment and determining if the patient should be receiving it.”

Currently, Scenic Mountain Medical Center is working on the logistics of administering the treatment for those patients who would best benefit from it, along with the referral source and process. Before a treatment will be administered there is blood work and labs that need to be conducted to ensure the treatment will be effective. In addition, the patient will be monitored while receiving the treatment to ensure no adverse reactions. Once the infusion – 700 mg dose – has completed the patient will be able to return home.

“Once the patient has received the infusion they will go home and hopefully, not return to the hospital to be admitted. That is the point of this treatment is to treat those who have the potential to become very sick and require hospitalization. By giving this treatment you are preventing them from hospitalization therefor helping the healthcare system deal with capacity related issues,” Dr. Saravanan said.

According to Dr. Saravanan, there is specific criteria to determine which patients would benefit from the treatment. Those who have underlying conditions that would make a patient more high risk for hospitalization, such as those with kidney or liver failure, cancer, COPD, heart conditions or other severe health conditions. Those who are over the age of 55 or those under 40 with chronic medical conditions.

“For patients who fall into the criteria then you know there is the potential of hospitalization. You identify that high risk and when they become positive you catch them early in the illness and provide the treatment,” he said. “The level of detail is not so important, the overall velocity of who you are giving this to is what the community needs to understand.”

The antibody monticlopial treatment is similar to the one received by President Donald Trump when he was ill. The antibody is specifically against one of the proteins that is on the coat and it identifies the virus, finds the virus so it can not be effective anymore and allows the white blood cells in your body to fight against it. The antibodies label the virus for destruction by the white blood cells.

“This treatment is intended for those who are more likely to be hospitalized when they contract the virus. This is not for those who are young and healthy people who would not normally be hospitalized. About 80 percent of the population who get the virus won’t ever see the hospital, they will only experience mild symptoms or appear asymptomatic. The smaller minority people who have chronic diseases and are older are the ones who are at a higher risk and are prime candidates for this treatment.”

The treatment is to be administered to patients who only have mild symptoms and are within five days of onset, and within three days of positive direct SARS-CO-V-2 test. For those who present to the Emergency Room or primary care providers office, the following criteria will be utilized to determine if the new, experimental, treatment is safe for the patient.

• Adult and pediatric patients with positive results of direct SARS-COV-2 viral testing who are 12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kg and

• Patient at high risk for progressing to severe Covid-19 disease and/or hospitalization as per criteria

• High risk for progression to severe COVID disease is identified as patients who meet at least one of the following: BMI greater than or equal to 35; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, immunosuppressive disease; currently receiving immunosuppressive treatment; 65 years or older; 55 years and have cardivascular disease, hypertension, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or other chronic respiratory disease; age 12-17 and have BMI over 85th percentile, sickle cell disease, congenital or acquired heart disease, neurodevelopmental disorders, medical related technological dependence or asthma, reactive airway or other respiratory disease requiring daily medication.

In addition to the 35 doses at SMMC, Midland Memorial and Medical Center Hospital have also received doses. According to information provided during a Thursday press conference, Medical Center has already administered four doses and has been conducting follow ups with those particular patients.

“Odessa Regional Medical Center has not received their doses at this time, but residents in West Texas do have access to this form of treatment. The distribution process was to allow for at least one hospital in each area to have access to doses, which is one of the reasons behind why SMMC received some,” he said. “One of the most important things we can ask from the community is to not self select yourself for this treatment. Allow the medical professionals to make this determination, especially if you are one of the younger, healthier patients who do not have underlying conditions that increase hospitalization possibilities.”

In addition to the new treatments, Governor Greg Abbott announced earlier in the week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made an initial allotment of over 1.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to the State of Texas for the month of December. These vaccines, which should begin arriving in Texas the week of Dec. 14, will be distributed to qualifying providers across the state who will administer these immunizations based on the Vaccine Distribution Principles developed by the state’s Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel. Additional allotments may be made later this month for December. Also, increased allotments are expected in January and the following months.

“The State of Texas is already prepared for the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, and will swiftly distribute these vaccines to Texans who voluntarily choose to be immunized,” said Governor Abbott. “As we await the first shipment of these vaccines, we will work with communities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

Dr. Saravanan also addressed the recent announcement by the CDC that is relaxing the quarantine duration from 14 days to 10 days and no symptoms or seven days with a negative test.

“The CDC still recommends the 14 day quarantine, but it also recognizes the balance to reduce the economic hardship while still reducing the spread of the virus,” he said.

To keep up with information pertaining to the

West Texas region, including Howard County visit the Texas Health

Department website for case counts or tune in to daily press conferences hosted by medical professionals across the region.