Delhi: Lok Nayak Hospital panel suggests Ebola drug for Covid

NEW DELHI: A committee appointed by Lok Nayak Hospital to look into the use of newer drugs for Covid-19 treatment has recommended that Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug developed originally to treat Ebola, can be used in patients who don’t improve despite steroid medication for three days and oxygen therapy.

According to the committee, chaired by Dr M K Daga, director professor of department of medicine at the hospital, Remdesivir shouldn’t be used with hydroxychloroquine. Then anti-malaria drug, Dr Daga points out in his report on June 29, interferes with Remdesivir’s action.

Dr Daga and three other senior doctors from the hospitals also evaluated the efficacy of other drugs such as Favipiravir, Tocilizumab, Ivermectin and plasma therapy for Covid-19 treatment. Favipiravir is an anti-viral medication developed in Japan. The committee has recommended against its use in the hospital citing lack of available data to support its efficacy in Covid-19 treatment.

Tocilizumab has been recommended for use among persons suffering from moderate to severe symptoms of the disease. “Patients to be carefully monitored for secondary infections and neutropenia,” the committee has recommended.

Covid-19 has no known cure. To save lives, scientists across the globe are leading investigations for re-purposing of available medicines such as Remdesivir, Favipiravir and even plasma therapy. Tocilizumab is recommended for patients who have extensive and bilateral lung disease on x-ray and CT scan among others.

Plasma therapy has been recommended for patients with severe Covid-19 infection within seven days of symptom onset.

According to the Lok Nayak hospital’s committee’s recommendations, patients with known co-morbidities, those younger than 18 years or older than 60 years, pregnant women, obese and those with previous history of allergy to plasma shouldn’t be considered for the therapy. “We have used Remdesivir in a few cases and the results are positive so far. Plasma therapy has been conducted on about 20 patients and most of them are doing fine,” Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital, said.

The hospital is conducting a clinical trial to assess the efficacy of plasma therapy. Officials said the trial will involve 400 Covid-19 patients; 200 will receive standard treatment while the rest will be given convalescent plasma.