The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended this Thursday, January 13, two new treatments against covid-19, for specific cases, increasing the total of recommended therapies to five.
The new recommendations, published in the medical journal The BMJ by WHO experts, suggest treatment with synthetic antibodies – sotrovimab – and a drug used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis – baricitinib.
Both are not intended for all patients, reports the AFP agency.
O sotrovimab It is recommended for patients who have contracted mild Covid-19 but are at a high risk of hospitalization, as the benefit to patients who are not at risk is considered to be very low.
Already baricitinib is recommended for “patients with severe or critical covid-19”, and the treatment must be done “in combination with corticosteroids”.
In these patients, the treatment "increases survival rates and reduces the need for mechanical ventilation."
Previously, the WHO had already recommended the use of IL-6 inhibitor drugs and systemic corticosteroids in patients with severe or critical covid-19 and monoclonal antibodies. casirivimab e imdevimab in selected patients.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization already advised against the treatment of covid-19 with convalescent plasma, with the antiparasitic ivermectin and with the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, regardless of the severity of the disease.
O sotrovimab affects the same type of patients as the Ronapreve and «its effectiveness against new variants such as Ómicron is still uncertain».
Likewise, the baricitinib “has the same effects” as IL-6 inhibitor drugs and should be given to the same patients.
“When both are available”, it is therefore necessary to choose which of the two to use “according to cost, availability and the experience of caregivers”, underline the WHO experts.
Other drugs in the family of baricitinib - ruxolitinib and tofacitinib – should not be used against Covid-19, due to lack of data on their efficacy or side effects, they warn.
WHO recommendations on treatments against covid-19 are regularly updated, based on clinical trials in different types of patients.
But the therapeutic arsenal continues to be reduced, as the WHO has rejected the use of various treatments.
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