A new treatment for vulnerable patients infected by Covid-19 to avoid the need for hospitalisation could be ready later in the year, according to the university of Leuven.
The treatment is the work of virologist, Professor Johan Neyts, and involves delivering antibodies via a drip, so that vulnerable patients such as elderly people do not have to be admitted to hospital.
“The good news is that a number of therapies are coming in the autumn that produce antibodies that can then be administered by infusion,” Prof. Neyts said in Terzake. “Clinical studies show that if this happens within five days of the onset of the first symptoms of a coronavirus infection, you then have about an 80% reduction in hospital admission. It would be ideal to do this with frail people such as the elderly if there is an outbreak in a residential care home, which could have an impact on the further evolution of the condition.”
Prof. Neyts is a supporter of the idea of giving only vulnerable patients, including the elderly and those with underlying conditions, a booster shot of the vaccine in the autumn to reinforce their protection in the presence of new variants which appear to be developing the ability to sidestep the vaccines.
