Tapeworm treatment could stop coronavirus

BIRMINGHAM is at the centre of a groundbreaking trial to see if a drug used to treat tapeworm holds the key to preventing kidney patients contracting

Covid.

The research into niclosamide’s effectiveness in safeguarding high risk patients from Covid has been rolled out to the city, Kidney Research UK has revealed.

The study has been running successfully at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, since February and has now received urgent public health priority, with more than 40 additional hospitals included in the trial.

Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital is now part of the programme.

If the charity and industryfunded trial is successful, it may pave the way for a new treatment to prevent or alleviate the impact of Covid-19 in people on dialysis, people who have had a kidney transplant and people with auto-immune diseases affecting the kidneys. The treatment will last up to nine months.

Professor Jeremy Hughes, chairman of trustees at Kidney Research UK, one of the charities funding the trial, said: “We must do everything we can to protect kidney patients, who are at serious risk from Covid-19.

“Sadly, data collected before the vaccine rollout began showed one in five kidney patients receiving dialysis in hospital or who have a kidney transplant and tested positive for the virus died within four weeks.

“Many of those on dialysis are having to put themselves at risk and attend their renal unit for life-saving dialysis treatment several times each week. Those who have had a kidney transplant must continue taking their immunosuppressant drugs, despite these making them more susceptible to infection.

“In the UK alone, around

64,000 people receive dialysis treatment or have had a kidney transplant.

“Kidney patients should have the vaccine, as soon as they are offered it. We hope this trial will add an extra layer of protection for kidney patients in the future. It could even reveal a way to prevent Covid-19 in other vulnerable people.”

Professor Indranil Dasgupta, consultant nephrologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to be part of this important trial. We believe testing niclosamide is particularly important for people who are immunosuppressed and have kidney disease, because their immune responses to vaccines can sometimes be less effective.”

The trial is recruiting at least 1,500 kidney patients across the UK, who will receive either a placebo, or UNI911 (niclosamide) as a nasal spray.