Covid breakthrough as common £3 drug slashes hospitalisation risk in large trial

NHS worker clashes with host over coronavirus vaccinations

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

This is a breaking story, more to follow

The drug, fluvoxamine, has been prescribed to treat OCD for nearly 30 years.

 

This is because the drug can reduce inflammation and researchers hoped it could reduce the body’s risk of serious response to the infection.

The results from the clinical trial could result in a complelelty new set of Covid-19 guidelines across the world. 

At a modest fee of only £3 pounds for a 10-day course, this could be be revolutionary for poorer nations.

Results of the study were published on Wednesday by a group of researchers in Canada, the US, and Brazil.

Dr. David Boulware is an infectious disease scientist at the University of Minnesota. 

He told The New York Times that fluvoxamine is “not a shiny new, expensive drug.”

Dr Boulware said: “The nice thing about this is it has a known safety profile.”

The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, followed almost 1,500 Covid-19 patients in Brazil who were given either fluvoxamine or a placebo drug.

Results showed that the drug reduced hospitalisation or long-term medical observation rates by a third.

But sientists who were’nt involved with the study have questions about the dosage, as some patients reportedly had difficulties coping with the drug and had to stop taking it.

In those who finsihed their programme  the drug reduced the need for hospitalisation at an even more significant rate: by two-thirds.

Fluvoxamine also slashed the chances of a Covid-related death.

Out of the participants with Covid-19 in the trial, 12 wof those who were given a placebo died, while only person who took fluvoxamine did.

But there is still a lot to be uncovered, as researchers still don’t know how the drug will in people who have been vaccinated as the most of study patients had not had their jabs.

And running large-scale Covid-19 trials has been difficult, especially  in the US, where the majority of high-risk patients have taken the vaccine, with the the remaining unvaccinated likely to refuse taking part in a study. 

But as fluvoxamine is already on the market as an OCD drug, doctors can reportedly prescribe the drug “off label” to treat coronavirus. 

But this has yet it has yet to develop as much support as other,  less-researched drugs have seen, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin garnered. 

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post COVID triggers unprecedented workload at integrity watchdog
Next post First time buyers facing higher prices due to government scheme