Why is Zithromax nowhere to be found?
What do Aifa and experts say about the disappearance of Zithromax from pharmacies? And why could the abuse of antibiotics of which Italy is a leader have anything to do with the lethality of Covid? Facts and insights
Do-it-yourself swabs, do-it-yourself diagnosis and even do-it-yourself cures. Before the race for Zithromax, the azithromycin-based antibiotic, it was the turn of vitamins, cortisone, heparin, hydroxychloroquine (promoted by Trump and Bolsonaro), ivermectin, etc. All cures passed off, on social media and otherwise, as miraculous against Covid which instead proved to be improper and, in some cases, even dangerous.
THE CASE OF THE ZITROMAX
“Sales of azithromycin in Italian pharmacies – writes Repubblica – have soared with the arrival of the pandemic. We went from 3.5 packs per day per 100 thousand inhabitants at the end of 2019 to 5.5 at the end of 2020 ".
Zithromax and its generic versions have been unavailable in pharmacies for days. Claudio Cricelli , president of the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (Simmg), in the Roman newspaper, speculates that it is still prescribed for anti Covid home therapy despite the experts having long ago clarified that the administration of antibiotics in positive patients is not only it is useless but also harmful.
And also the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) clarifies that "the current shortage [of azithromycin, ed. ] Does not derive from exports or other distribution anomalies, but from the prescription of the drug outside the prescribed indications".
BECAUSE AZITHROMYCIN IS NOT USING ANYTHING AGAINST COVID
Azithromycin is an antibiotic and antibiotics have the ability to fight bacterial infections, but not viruses which can, instead, be countered by specific antivirals .
Zithromax "not only is it not an anti-Covid drug because it is an antibiotic, but it is useless in the treatment against the coronavirus", Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic hospital, reiterated to Adnkronos Genoa.
WHY NOT USE ANTIBIOTICS AGAINST COVID
Antibiotics, reads the Aifa website, "are not effective for the treatment of any viral infection, including seasonal flu".
As Bassetti explains, abusing antibiotics ( Italy is one of the largest consumers in Europe ) risks creating the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, i.e. when it is really necessary to administer them, antibiotics no longer work because bacteria 'resist' the substance which should eliminate them.
Furthermore, the senseless procurement of certain drugs prevents those who really need them from finding them.
WHAT THE AIFA SAID
Following the spread of the news on Zithromax, Aifa has made it known that "no antibiotic in general is approved, much less recommended, for the treatment of Covid-19".
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, Aifa has strongly discouraged the use of azithromycin for Covid-19. As amply demonstrated by numerous and well-conducted clinical studies published in the best international journals, there is no evidence that the use of azithromycin has a protective effect on the evolution of Covid-19, neither in terms of reduction of transmission, nor of timing. of healing, or of mortality ”, reads the website .
ABUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS AND COVID
In the wake of what Bassetti said, even the director of AIFA, Nicola Magrini, reiterates : “The abuse of antibiotics produces resistance. And the resistance is a disaster ”.
“Italy has a bad situation as far as resistance is concerned. We have set up a monitoring team – said Magrini – and during Covid there was a clear increase in the use of all antibiotics. Having resistant bacteria around, especially for patients who have to spend long periods in intensive care, is not desirable at all. I do not exclude that the high lethality that Italy has recorded for Covid is also attributable to this ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-zitromax-e-introvabile/ on Fri, 14 Jan 2022 09:37:54 +0000.