WHO recommends antiviral drug for non-severe Covid

 

New Delhi: The WHO has recommended oral antiviral drug (a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets) for patients with non-severe Covid-19 who are at highest risk of hospitalisation, such as unvaccinated, older, or immunosuppressed patients, with lack of vaccination as an additional risk factor to consider. This recommendation is based on new data from two randomized controlled trials involving 3078 patients. The data show that  risk of hospitalization is reduced by 85% following this treatment. In a high-risk group (over 10% risk of hospitalization), that means 84 fewer hospitalizations per 1000 patients.

However, they recommend against its use in patients at lower risk, as the benefits are trivial. And they make no recommendation for patients with severe or critical covid, as there is currently no trial data on nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for this group.Their recommendation is based on new data from two randomised controlled trials involving 3,100 patients.

In these trials, moderate certainty evidence showed that nirmatrelvir/ritonavir reduced hospital admission (84 fewer admissions per 1,000 patients), low certainty evidence suggested no important difference in mortality, and high certainty evidence suggested little or no risk of adverse effects leading to drug discontinuation. In the same guideline update, WHO also makes a conditional  recommendation to use antiviral drug remdesivir for patients with non-severe covid at highest risk of hospitalisation. (Agencies)