Home therapies: all about antivirals
Home therapies are the other side, perhaps less told, of the Covid19 treatment. In the past months, governments of several countries have been forced to impose lockdowns to contain the epidemic and prevent the saturation of intensive care. However, most of Covid19 patients did not resort to hospital treatment but treated the infection at home.
Home therapies according to the Ministry of Health
A circular from the Ministry of Health of 26 April , which updates the previous one of 30 November 2020, establishes that home therapies include: monitoring of the patient's vital parameters and clinical conditions, frequent measurement of oxygen saturation; acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Other drugs, including monoclonal antibodies and cortisone, they can be administered, except in rare cases, in hospitals or specialized centers and under strict medical supervision.
The "revolution" of antivirals
As the Corriere della Sera writes, the real revolution will be that of antivirals , as happened for HIV and hepatitis B and C. Several research groups are studying drugs capable of blocking the virus , at low cost and easy to take. When they arrive, the fear of Sars-CoV-2 and its effects (even in the long term) can be a really bad memory.
Antiviral drugs: the US invests 3.2 billion dollars
Antivirals are drugs that fight viral infections or provide protection for a certain period of time. They have a therapeutic or preventive action , and can be administered orally or through injections. On June 17, the US government announced that it had invested 3.2 billion dollars in the Antiviral Program for Pandemics , in order to accelerate the development and testing of antiviral drugs that "block" the disease.
Vaccines are not enough against variants
Although the vaccination campaign is enjoying undoubted success , antiviral drugs could be very useful in contrasting variants . “The virus undergoes frequent mutations – explained to the Sole 24 Ore prof. Giampiero Mazzaglia , associate professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Milan Bicocca -. Since although current technologies allow to produce in a relatively short time effective vaccines for new variants potentially resistant to the vaccines currently in use, it will be essential to have antiviral drugs able to act against an active Sars-Cov infection in our therapeutic background. -2".
Antivirals available
Currently, the only antiviral currently approved by 'Ema, is the Veklury: a drug developed by Gilead Sciences, used against the epidemic of Ebola. An antiviral under study is Molnupiravir , developed by pharmaceutical giant Merck together with biotech company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It is being tested and has shown promising results on the hospitalization and death rates of patients who received it. The definitive data should arrive by October 2021. Another drug under study is At-527 : an "oral antiviral with direct action that works by blocking the viral RNA polymerase enzyme necessary for the replication of the virus – says the prof. Giampiero Mazzaglia – , whose efficacy and safety have been tested in phase 2 clinical studies on patients with hepatitis C and, in vitro, on the Sars-Cov-2 virus ".
The risk of do-it-yourself care
The Italian drug agency raised the alarm for the improper use of Parvulan , a drug indicated for the treatment of Herpes Zoster, and which is also used in prophylaxis against Coronavirus . The drug is illegal in Italy because it is not authorized, but it is registered and marketed in Brazil. It is certainly not prescribed by doctors, Parvulan is used as a "do-it-yourself remedy" by skeptics of official medicine. The Maritime, Air and Border Health Offices (Usmaf) of the Ministry of Health have become aware of suspicious requests for imports of Parvulan. "The use of the drug in prophylaxis" of Sars-CoV-2 "is not supported by even minimal evidence of efficacy and safety" and "represents a potential danger to people's health ", warns Aifa in an opinion from the Commission scientific technician of the Agency.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/terapie-domiciliari-tutto-sugli-antivirali/ on Fri, 24 Sep 2021 04:23:30 +0000.