Are at the moment obtainable therapies for COVID-19 efficient?
Results from an ongoing study are investigating the effectiveness of treatments for COVID-19, including remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, and glucocorticoids.
COVID-19 continues to spread around the world. To date, more than 15.6 million people have been infected, with more than 636,000 people dying. In light of the immediate pressures of the global pandemic, health care workers around the world are prescribing drugs off-label with no evidence of the effectiveness of these treatments for COVID-19.
A group of researchers reviewed 23 clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments with the aim of "providing clinicians and patients with trustworthy, actionable, and vivid guidance as soon as new and potentially practice-changing knowledge emerges". The results of this review have been published in the British Medical Journal and will be updated regularly as the results of further clinical studies become available.
The researchers found that in patients infected with severe COVID-19, glucocorticoids are the only intervention that can potentially reduce deaths and the use of mechanical ventilation. The review found hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir-ritonavir, and remdesivir may reduce the time to symptom resolution and the length of time mechanical ventilation is required. In addition, hydroxychloroquine may increase the risk of adverse events compared to other interventions.
At present, all studies that have been carried out have significant limitations. These results reinforce the need for higher quality clinical trials. Therefore, the available evidence as to the drugs' effectiveness is highly uncertain, and there is no clear evidence that other interventions produce significant benefit and harm to the results.
Reference:
Siemieniuk RA, Bartoszko JJ, Ge L., Zeraatkar D., Izcovich A., Pardo-Hernandez H. et al. Drug Treatments for Covid-19: Living Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. BMJ. 2020; 370: m2980.
Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pixabay
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