WHO Living Guideline on Drugs to Prevent COVID-19
The WHO and the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation have developed a guideline on drugs to prevent Covid 19. The guideline is an evidence-based guideline that is easy to use. It includes recommendations for both oral and injectable treatments.
hydroxychloroquine
A recent study has suggested that hydroxychloroquine may have clinical benefits for treating covid 19. The drug has anti-inflammatory properties and may help the disease to regress. The study looked at 150 covid-19 patients, 82 of whom were male. The mean age of these patients was 46, and most had a mild-to-moderate disease. Only two patients had severe disease.
The study was conducted at seven participating hospitals across the UK. The patients were evaluated for covid disease using standard care and a screening test for covid infection. In addition to assessing their covid status, the researchers also assessed the patients’ vital signs, C reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and tumour necrosis factor a and interleukin-6. They also completed a coagulation panel and reviewed any adverse events. The researchers also assessed the patients’ ability to receive concomitant medicines.
ruxolitinib
A new WHO living guideline on drugs to prevent COVID-19 is available. It replaces the previous guideline and provides the most recent recommendations. The living guideline is available in both pdf format and as an online platform. It contains 19 recommendations, including two new ones on fluvoxamine and colchicine. Other updated recommendations were made for anti-viral therapies.
The WHO living guideline is dynamic, and it incorporates new evidence into its recommendations. It evaluates new therapies when enough evidence is available, taking the perspective of individual patients, as well as patient values and preferences. It also considers the feasibility of new treatments and resource-infrastructural considerations.
tofacitinib
The WHO has updated the guideline for the use of drugs to prevent covid 19. The latest version recommends the use of the drug remdesivir in patients with non-severe cases. The recommendation is based on data from five randomised controlled trials involving more than two thousand patients. It replaces the previous recommendation to avoid remdesivir for all cases of covid-19.
The living guideline is based on emerging evidence from RCTs and is intended to complement the existing WHO guidelines on covid-19. The guideline also includes a living network meta-analysis, which incorporates new trial data into the guidelines. It will also incorporate patient values and preferences and consider long-term safety.
remdesivir
The latest update of the WHO’s living guideline for drugs to prevent COVID-19 includes a new recommendation for remdesivir, a synthetic nucleoside analog of the human interleukin-6 receptor. The updated guideline also addresses the use of IL-6 receptor blockers, janus kinase inhibitors and neutralizing monoclonal antibodies.
The WHO guideline does not make a recommendation based on disease severity; however, it has based its recommendation on the results of the VA Evidence Synthesis Program’s living systematic evidence review. That review evaluated remdesivir’s effectiveness versus its side effects in hospitalized patients. It also evaluated the effects of remdesivir over a range of durations, such as five or 10 days.
Pfizer’s oral antiviral drug
A new study found that a Pfizer oral antiviral drug to prevent COVID 19 is superior to older treatments. The drug significantly reduced hospitalization rates and the risk of death. The findings were important enough to garner attention from the NIH, which prioritized the drug over alternatives in the COVID-19 treatment queue. The drug’s price tag is also lower than existing treatments, making it a particularly affordable treatment. Additionally, the U.S. government will provide the drug free of charge during public health emergencies.
The interim analysis of phase 2/3 data for Paxlovid, Pfizer’s oral antiviral vaccine for covid-19, revealed an 89% reduction in the relative risk of hospital admission and death. These results have been touted by UK government officials to justify the drug’s development. However, one caveat to these findings is that they were based on unvaccinated participants. Most at-risk individuals in the UK are vaccinated, making them a poor indicator of efficacy.