Effective
Avigan
As researchers sought treatment early in the pandemic, the Japanese drug Avigan, with the active ingredient favipiravir, was promoted worldwide in Asia and beyond. The drug is used for severe flu strains, and it has been found to be a powerful inhibitor of many RNA viruses. The drug may shorten the recovery time for patients with COVID-19 – but the possible side effects are serious, including anaphylactic shock and pneumonia.
Dexamethasone
The anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone was found to reduce 28-day mortality in patients admitted to the hospital with severe COVID-19. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RCI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend the use of the drug in such cases.
Dexamethasone is not recommended for patients with mild symptoms and should not be used prematurely. “If you use it too early, you will dampen or block the immune system, and may even make the disease worse,” Sandra Ciesek, director of the Institute of Medical Virology at Frankfurt University Hospital, said in a podcast in October. said. of the public broadcaster NDR.
Ineffective
Hydroxychloroquine
At the onset of the pandemic, the active ingredient in the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was used on a limited basis. Several studies have found that it has serious side effects and that it is an ineffective treatment for COVID-19.
Hydroxychloroquine has long been used to combat malaria, but is not recommended as a remedy for COVID-19.
Under study
Artemisinin
No reliable clinical studies have yielded results on the effects of artemisia, the active ingredient in all, promoted early in the pandemic as a treatment in patients under the brand name Covid Organics.
A team led by Peter Seeberger, head of the Biomolecular Systems division at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, has determined that extracts of the plant are effective against COVID-19 – at least in the test tube. The study appeared only as a pre-print and has not yet been finalized. A Phase II study with 360 participants is currently underway in Mexico.
Seeberger told DW that people should not drink artemisia tea “in the belief that they are preventing or curing COVID-19: currently there is no clinical evidence.”
Authorities in Madagascar distribute Covid Organics in schools
Tocilizumab and sarilumab
The efficacy of the inflammatory drugs tocilizumab and sarilumab is being investigated. The active ingredients are commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and according to a recent pre-press, it may reduce the mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. However, a study of 243 patients published in December concluded that it did not significantly reduce intubation or death for patients with moderate COVID-19. The British government plans to use the agents.
Researchers are looking for drugs that reduce the severity of COVID-19 and the need for hospitalization
Ivermektien
The WHO and the US Food and Drug Administration recommend this antiparasitic agent to treat COVID-19.
The U.S. Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, on the other hand, evaluated clinical data and concluded that the drug can significantly reduce viral load and accelerate recovery in patients with mild to moderate cases. The group reports that the drug reduces the need for hospitalization and lower deaths.
Remdesivir – no evidence
US President Donald Trump has been given brake desivir while being treated for COVID-19, but its effectiveness has not been proven. Within the European Union, it has been approved for conditional use in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia; in the United States, it was allowed for people admitted to the hospital. The WHO recommends the use of brake desivir.
Brakedivir and dexamethasone were used to treat Donald Trump when he contracted COVID-19
Unproven prevention
Mouthwash and nasal spray
The German Hospital Hygiene Association (DGKH) recommends gargling with certain mouthwashes to kill viruses in the throat and temporarily reduce the risk of transmission by infected people.
Mouthwash, used by British soldiers here in 1939 to try to ward off flu, is a centuries-old remedy
“Of course you do not reach the viruses as long as they are in the cells,” DGKH spokesman Peter Walger told DW. “So you do not eliminate the infection, but only eliminate the free viruses, which – if you cough or exhale – would be the basis for a new infection.”
This is a similar concept to antiviral nasal spray. The product algovir was discussed.
In a study by a research group in the German city of Bochum, scientists found that different mouthwashes reduced the amount of coronavirus detected in test tubes. As of August, the WHO and the German Dental Associations have recommended that patients gargle with mouthwash before treatment – even though there are no clinical studies proving that gargle and mouthwash are effective in preventing human-to-human transmission.
This article was adapted from the German by Dagmar Breitenbach.