Of . – 11/11/2022 09:53 (act 11/11/2022 09:54)
Paxlovid is said to work against severe courses of corona and long covid. ©Portal (image of symbol)
Corona drug Paxlovid works against severe courses of Covid 19 disease and against Long Covid.
According to experts, however, it is rarely used. The drug should also statistically significantly reduce the risk of long-term covid, US scientists have now determined in a registry study.
Paxlovid prevents Long Covid and helps with severe courses of corona
The scientific study by American epidemiologist Ziyad Al Aly of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, was initially published only as a preprint without peer review (DOI:10.1101/2022.11.03.22281783). Determining the effectiveness of Paxlovid is associated with several problems for methodological reasons: the approval study clearly demonstrated around 90% protection for unvaccinated people at high risk of Covid-19 (severe or fatal course). There were no corresponding data on persons immunized against SARS-CoV-2 by vaccination.
Studies on the corona drug Paxlovid
At the same time, in prospective studies with randomly selected people, based on the available data, it is hardly possible to refuse the effective drug to anyone with a Covid-19 risk factor. The US scientists therefore used log data from the US Army Veterans Welfare Service. Information from 9,217 Covid-19 patients with at least one risk factor (eg obesity, diabetes, etc.) for a severe course of the disease was taken from their records. All were treated with the corona drug Paxlovid within five days of a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Information from 47,123 comparable people without Paxlovid therapy for Covid-19 served as a control group.
The results were statistically significant
The results were statistically significant and support drug therapy with the combination of protease inhibitors in the event of a SARS-CoV-2 infection and risk facts. The authors wrote: “Compared to the control group, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir treatment was associated with a lower long-term incidence of Covid (26% drop; NB). This also included a lower incidence of ten of twelve complications long-term effects of Covid-19 for the cardiovascular system (arrhythmias, ischemic heart diseases), blood clotting disorders and other hematological problems (leg veins or pulmonary thrombosis), states of exhaustion, liver or kidney diseases, muscle pain, cognitive disorders or shortness of breath.”
Mortality (all causes) was also reduced by almost half (48%) among those treated with Paxlovid during the 90-day follow-up period. There was a 30 percent reduction in hospital admissions for any reason. Furthermore, the effect of Paxlovid was virtually the same across all subgroups by Covid-19 disease type and immune status: among vaccinated and unvaccinated people, people with corona booster immunization, first or more SARS-CoV-2 infection. .
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