New Delhi: As the world is staring at the new covid-19 wave and there is no sure shot treatment of the infection available, the World Health Organization has given approval to two new treatments which can reduce the risk of severe illness and death, reported the news agency AFP.
The WHO experts in their recommendations in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) said that arthritis drug baricitinib used with corticosteroids to treat severe covid cases have proven to improve survival rate and reduced the need for ventilators.
The other treatment approved by the WHO experts is the synthetic antibody treatment Sotrovimab for patients with non-serious covid but high hospitalisation risks such as older people and those with chronic diseases like diabetes.
However, Sotrovimab is not significantly effective for not-at-risk patients and its effect on new variants like Omicron is “still uncertain,” the journal said.
Until now, there were three treatments available for covid-19 that were approved by the WHO separately. It includes the Corticosteroids for the severely ill which was approved in September 2020. It is an anti-inflammatory drug that is inexpensive and easily available.
The other treatment available is with the arthritis drugs tocilizumab and sarilumab which were approved by the WHO in July. The drugs can be useful in fighting the overreaction of the immune system due to the infection. The patients can also use Baricitinib as it also falls under the same guidelines as the previous two.
The guidelines reported by AFP say, “When both are available, choose one based on issues including cost and clinician experience.”
The approval of Sotrovimab is in line with the Synthetic antibody treatment Regeneron which was approved by the WHO in September.