Newly contaminated COVID-19 sufferers have two new therapy choices that may be taken at house.
However that comfort comes with a catch: The tablets should be taken as quickly as doable as soon as signs seem.
The problem is getting examined, getting a prescription and beginning the tablets in a brief window.
U.S. regulators licensed Pfizer’s tablet, Paxlovid, and Merck’s molnupiravir final week. In high-risk sufferers, each have been proven to scale back the probabilities of hospitalization or loss of life from COVID-19, though Pfizer’s was far more efficient.
A better look:
WHO SHOULD TAKE THESE PILLS?
The antiviral tablets aren’t for everybody who will get a optimistic take a look at. The tablets are supposed for these with gentle or average COVID-19 who usually tend to turn out to be critically unwell. That features older individuals and people with different well being circumstances like coronary heart illness, most cancers or diabetes that make them extra weak. Each tablets have been OK’d for adults whereas Paxlovid is allowed for youngsters ages 12 and older.
WHO SHOULDN’T TAKE THESE PILLS?
Merck’s molnupiravir will not be licensed for youngsters as a result of it would intervene with bone development. It additionally isn’t really helpful for pregnant girls due to the potential for start defects. Pfizer’s tablet isn’t really helpful for sufferers with extreme kidney or liver issues. It additionally will not be the most suitable choice for some as a result of it might work together with different prescriptions a affected person is taking. The antiviral tablets aren’t licensed for individuals hospitalized with COVID-19.
WHAT’S THE TREATMENT WINDOW?
The tablets should be began as quickly as doable, inside 5 days of the beginning of signs. Cough, headache, fever, the lack of style or odor and muscle and physique aches are among the many extra frequent indicators. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention provides a web site to test your signs.
Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious illness specialist at Duke College Hospital, advises getting a take a look at as quickly as you’ve signs of COVID-19.
“In the event you wait till you’ve began to get breathless, you’ve already to a big extent missed the window the place these medicine can be useful,” Wolfe mentioned.
WHERE CAN I GET THE PILLS?
You’ll want a prescription first from a physician or different licensed well being employee. The U.S. authorities is shopping for the tablets from Merck and Pfizer and offering them at no cost, however provides can be restricted initially. They’ll be shipped to states the place they are going to be out there at drugstores, neighborhood well being facilities and different locations. Therapy lasts 5 days.
Some pharmacists might be able to administer a fast COVID-19 take a look at and prescribe the tablets multi functional go to. They already do that in lots of states for flu or strep throat.
WILL THE PILLS WORK FOR THE OMICRON VARIANT?
The tablets are anticipated to be efficient towards omicron as a result of they don’t goal the spike protein the place a lot of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside. The 2 tablets work in numerous methods to forestall the virus from reproducing.
ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS FOR NEW COVID-19 PATIENTS?
Sure, however they aren’t as straightforward to make use of as a tablet: They’re given by IV or injection, sometimes at a hospital or clinic. Three medicine present virus-fighting antibodies, though laboratory testing suggests the 2 aren’t efficient towards omicron. British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline’s antibody drug seems to work, and officers say they’re working to extend the U.S. provide. The one antiviral drug authorised within the U.S., remdesivir, is for individuals hospitalized with COVID-19.
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AP Well being Author Matthew Perrone contributed to this report. Observe Tom Murphy on Twitter at @thpmurphy.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Division of Science Schooling. The AP is solely chargeable for all content material.