DYER WOMAN REFLECTS ON RECOVERY FROM VIRUS
Positive COVID-19 test leads to joining treatment study
“If you are face to face with someone without a mask, you are going to get it, I don’t care how careful you are.”
— Mary Lou Jandura, 71, of Dyer
Trying to be as careful as possible, it was a surprise when Mary Lou Jandura found out she tested positive for COVID-19.
In early August, she went to lunch outside with her friend. By the weekend, she started showing symptoms including severe fatigue, higher temperature and a headache that felt like a migraine.
“If you are face to face with someone without a mask, you are going to get it, I don’t care how careful you are,” said Jandura, 71, of Dyer, a retired elementary school teacher in Flossmoor, Illinois.
She later figured out a cluster of five people got sick around the same time, including Jandura, her friend, the friend’s husband, their son and another person, she said.
The symptoms all hit around the same time, including dizziness, headache, fever, chills, aches, pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, smell and taste, “explosive” sneezing, persistent coughing and stomach issues, she said. The cough lingered until mid-September.
“You’re under attack,” Jandura said.
One symptom she was grateful not to have was shortness of breath. To keep her balance, sometimes she moved around the house with her late husband’s walker.
Doctors prescribed antibiotics as a precaution for a weakened system. Taking zinc left a “horrible taste in my mouth,” like “eating a spoonful of salt,” she said.
Meanwhile, Franciscan Health Hammond was starting as one of 24 sites participating in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s BLAZE-1 study to test if an engineered antibody drug, called LY-CoV555, could neutralize the virus early in patients who show only mild symptoms, before the condition progresses to hospitalization.
Last month, Lilly said its goal was to have 400 participants, such as Jandura, showing symptoms, but not bad enough to be hospitalized.
The hope was that it could lead to treatment options.
The day after Jandura tested positive, Franciscan infectious disease physician Erica Kaufman West called her asking if she wanted to participate. Participants had to have received their test results within the past three days.
Jandura figured she was in good health otherwise. It made sense, especially because she lived alone after her husband died last summer.
“I thought this would help people,” she said.
Jandura ended up being the first in Northwest Indiana to take part, Kaufman West said.
About a month ago, Jandura went to Franciscan Health Hammond to get an experimental intravenous infusion. Participants got a placebo or three possible doses — 700 mg, 2,800 mg or 7,000 mg.
Someone called every day to record her symptoms. A nurse came twice per week, swabbing her nose and taking blood samples. She was instructed to regularly check her temperature and oxygen saturation levels. If her oxygen levels dropped below 90 — which didn’t happen, but was a scary thought — she was told to call 911.
After about two weeks, she finally felt back to normal. Right now, doctors have said that she has immunity for about three months, but it’s possible to catch it again.
Researchers in Hong Kong recently reported evidence of a person who got the coronavirus a second time, months after an initial infection.
The finding has not yet been published in a journal, but scientists said the 33-year-old man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time, suggesting his immune system may have provided some protection against serious illness even if it could not prevent a reinfection.
Having gotten sick was valuable, now that she knows how her body might feel if she gets it again, Jandura said.
“I feel much less fearful right now, knowing what I went through,” she said. “I would not want to do it again.”
“Part of it is the fear, after all you’ve read and heard,” she said. “You don’t know how long it’s gonna last. You don’t know what kind of symptoms you are going to have. You don’t know if you are going to have any lasting effects.”
Jandura has a warning for anyone who has not been taking COVID-19 seriously.
“You don’t know anybody? Now you do,” she said. “It’s out there. You might not think it’s a big deal, but it is. You don’t want it. It’s just miserable.”
This past week, Lilly researchers said they were seeing some encouraging signs from the BLAZE-1 study.
Those who got an antibody IV were 72% less likely to need hospitalization or go to the emergency room, it said.
Specifically, 6% who got the placebo needed some medical care for the virus, compared to 1.7% who got antibodies. Most who were hospitalized had an underlying condition like age or a higher body mass index, it said, suggesting they might need a stronger dose.
It also appeared to cut the amount of virus in the body earlier, by day three, reducing the likelihood someone had a persistently high viral load in their system later on.
The 2,800 mg dose met their goals, researchers said. Most participants in the study, including those with the placebo, appeared to clear COVID-19 from their system by day 11, it said.
No serious side effects were reported from the drug. No one needed to be put on a ventilator or died, it said.
“These interim data from the BLAZE-1 trial suggest that LY-CoV555, an antibody specifically directed against SARSCoV-2, has a direct antiviral effect and may reduce COVID-related hospitalizations,” said Daniel Skovronsky, head of Lilly’s research laboratories. “The results reinforce our conviction that neutralizing antibodies can help in the fight against COVID-19.”
Skovronsky said it would look to submit the findings to a peer-reviewed journal. As part of BLAZE-1, Lilly is also moving on with a wider study, testing LY-CoV555 in combination with another antibody drug, LY-CoV016, to see if a tag team could work better on higher risk patients.
Using the same drug, LY-CoV555, Eli Lilly is currently conducting a different study, called BLAZE-2, to see if it can be used to stop the virus from spreading in nursing homes.
The company is testing 2,400 people to see if one dose can cut infection rates over four weeks, or complications up to eight weeks, according to a release.