This Thursday (13), the World Health Organization (WHO) updated guidelines on medicines that can be used to treat Covid-19. The entity started to recommend the drug baricitinibe for patients with severe cases of the disease, and the monoclonal antibody sotrovimabe for those with lighter frames.
In an interview with CNN, Jamal Suleiman, an infectious disease specialist at the Emílio Ribas Institute, said that the addition of treatments to the options to combat the coronavirus is important, but does not represent a definitive treatment.
“It is important, it is a therapy that we can use in certain scenarios, but unfortunately it is not definitive for this disease”, remembering that the medication can only be used in patients with “very specific indications” and with application in a hospital environment.
The drugs are not yet available in the Unified Health System (SUS), despite the approval for emergency use granted by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). “These are different situations: Anvisa approves, does not raise an objection and recognizes that it is an important product for the pandemic scenario, but this technology is not incorporated into the SUS”, he said, highlighting the limitations for the immediate use of treatments.
A positive point of the new recommendation is that, according to Suleiman, it covers all currently circulating variants of the disease, even the most recent and most transmissible Ômicron. “There is no objection to the use of these products in the variants currently in circulation”.
Despite the novelty, vaccination remains the best strategy to contain the pandemic, explained the expert. “The ideal at this pandemic moment is for people to receive the vaccines, because this is the public health protection strategy for the entire contingent”, reinforcing data that point out that 8 out of 10 patients who registered severe cases of Covid-19 did not have it. the complete vaccination schedule.
Vaccination should be the primary strategy, preventing many people from being contaminated by the virus, and therefore having a greater chance of developing severe cases. Even with full vaccination, it is possible for serious infections to emerge, putting drugs as a new route of treatment.
Reference: CNN Brasil
