JAIPUR: Refuting the claim made by World Health Organisation (WHO) on remdesivir, the
core Covid-19 treatment group at Sawai Man Singh Medical College has said that the drug has been effective in preventing mortalities.
The WHO had recently claimed that remdesivir had little or no effect on the overall mortality of patients.
Rajasthan’s
Covid management standard protocol, drafted by the SMS Hospital team, meanwhile, says, “Remdesivir may be considered in patients with moderate to severe disease (those on oxygen), preferably early disease.”
‘The Solidarity Trial’ interim results, published by WHO on October 15, found “that all four treatments evaluated (remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon) had little or no effect on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay in patients”.
The health department had issued Rajasthan’s Covid management standard protocol on October 17. “Remdesivir is one of the most effective drugs available for Covid patients and helps in preventing mortality. We completely disagree with WHO’s claim on remdesivir,” said Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal and controller, SMS Medical College, and head of the core treatment group.
Doctors in government and private hospitals are now providing remdesivir injection to patients. While in children, doctors are not advocating using the combination of remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), in adults with moderate symptoms, doctors have prescribed remdesivir 200mg over 90-120 minutes on the first day, followed by 100mg for four days. The course is given while the doctors continuously monitored liver function.
The health department provided remdesivir injections to every district hospital across the state to treat Covid patients after the core team advocated it as an effective drug, which has saved the lives of many patients.
This is not the first time that there has been disagreements with WHO's findings. Earlier, when WHO had halted clinical trials of HCQ following safety concerns in May, the core group had called it “propaganda”. HCQ is still part of the Covid management protocol of the health department.