ANTIBODY

COVID-19 and that monoclonal antibodies might even worsen the infection in patients requiring high-flow oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

Patients who normally receive oxygen, even before COVID-19, may qualify for the treatment. However, they can’t be on oxygen during the infusion; oxygen therapy can only be used before and after the treatment.

Wiley noted that patients do not need a referral to get the treatment, but the Transitional Care Clinic has received a lot of referrals from the Emergency Department and primary care providers.

Once a patient is identified, Wiley’s team will go through a checklist of criteria to see if patients qualify under the emergency use authorization.

Patients who qualify will go into the Transitional Care Clinic to receive the intravenous infusion, which takes about 20 minutes. However, the whole process takes about two hours to complete.

Magu cautioned that even with the treatment, some patients might not improve and will need to go to the hospital.

The hospital admission rate is 7.6%. From all the patients that have received the treatment at YRMC, two patients have gotten sick enough to get admitted to the hospital.

Magu “highly” recommends patients get the vaccine before they contract the infection and notes that the monoclonal antibody treatment is not a replacement for the vaccine.

“This is post-disease treatment. It’s not as effective as the vaccine,” he said.

Patients recovering from COVID-19 can receive the vaccine 90 days after the monoclonal antibody infusion, Magu said.

Wiley urged individuals who have tested positive to COVID-19 to act quickly. “If patients have been diagnosed with COVID, and they’re thinking about monoclonal antibody therapy, don’t wait because people don’t know how quickly their infection might progress. Don’t think about it too long,” she said.

Magu noted that a recent change now allows YRMC to order the antibodies directly from the supplier, but there is still a potential for slight delays in receiving stock.

“So far we haven’t had issues, nothing to be concerned about at this point, but as we know, we have no control when ordering the treatment, how much we will receive here,” Magu said.

For more information about monoclonal antibody treatment, call the Transitional Care Clinic at 928-3362165.