Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in March 2020, until this Friday (10), the world has already added 5.2 million deaths, 268 million infections and at least seven variants of the new coronavirus. The numbers are from Johns Hopkins University, and show the panorama of a health tragedy on a global scale, where the vaccine appears as the most promising measure identified by science to end these data.
However, in the 21 months of pandemic, several drugs and treatments were studied by scientists as alternatives in the treatment against Covid-19, many of them already discarded by the World Health Organization (WHO) as effective in the treatment of the disease.
In Brazil, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has a list of authorized clinical studies, with dozens of drugs and vaccines, which may eventually contribute to the fight against the new coronavirus.
So far, the regulatory agency in Brazil has released six drugs to help treat Covid-19, that is, drugs to be applied by health professionals to patients who are already contaminated in certain contexts.
Among the drugs ruled out as effective in the disease are hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, azithromycin and treatment with convalescent plasma (blood transfusion from a patient who has already had Covid-19). Check out:
Plasma convalescente
WHO advised against the use of convalescent plasma for Covid-19; the alert was released this Monday (6).
“Convalescent plasma (a transfusion of blood plasma from someone who has recovered from Covid-19) is not recommended for patients with Covid-19,” said a group of international guideline development experts at WHO.
“Despite its initial promise, current evidence shows that it does not improve survival or reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and is expensive and time-consuming to administer,” added WHO.
Accordingly, the Organization made a strong recommendation against the use of convalescent plasma in patients with non-severe illness, and a recommendation against its use in patients with critical and critical illness, except in the context of a randomized clinical trial.
“The recommendations are based on evidence from 16 studies involving 16,236 patients with non-severe, severe and critical Covid-19 infection. They are part of a living guideline, developed by the World Health Organization with methodological support from the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation, to provide credible guidance on the management of Covid-19 and to help clinicians make better decisions with their patients,” stated the WHO
Hydroxychloroquine
In March of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that hydroxychloroquine does not work in the treatment against Covid-19 and warned that sI use may cause adverse effects. The drug underwent a review by a group of experts and patients and received “strong recommendation” against use in combating the coronavirus.
The group of 32 WHO panelists rated the drug’s inefficiency for treating Covid-19 as “high certainty”. They further suggested that “funders and researchers should reconsider starting or continuing these experiments.” The document was published by the scientific journal The BJM.
Ivermectina
Also in March 2021, the WHO recommended that ivermectin not be used for the treatment of patients with Covid-19. According to the entity, the effectiveness of the drug has not been proven. A WHO publication with therapeutic guidelines suggests that the drug should only be administered in clinical trials.
According to the document, the data collected to measure the effectiveness of Ivermectin did not produce conclusive results.
Janet Diaz, who leads the coronavirus clinical response team at WHO, reiterated that the drug is not recommended regardless of the severity or duration of symptoms caused by the coronavirus.
Azithromycin
An Oxford University study concluded that azithromycin and doxycycline are not effective in treating Covid-19’s early symptoms. The research was carried out by an Oxford study platform started in March this year, which studies possibilities for early treatments against the new coronavirus.
We analyzed 526 patients who took azithromycin and 728 patients who took doxycycline, all over 50 years old. The results showed that there is no significant benefit in the recovery time of patients who took the drugs.
Reference: CNN Brasil
