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Pakistan reports new polio case in DI Khan as tally tops 72 in 2024
2025-01-15 17:55:00
health worker administering polio drops to a child during 7-day Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme 2024 in provincial capital on September 9, 2024. — APP” width=”700″ height=”400″ class=””/>A female health worker administering polio drops to a child during 7-day Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme 2024 in provincial capital on September 9, 2024. — APP
Pakistan on Wednesday reported another poliovirus case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) with the total tally of the country reaching 72 in 2024.
The latest case involves a girl from Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said the health officials, adding that the samples from the affected girl were taken on December 31, 2024.
This confirmation marks the 11th reported polio case from DI Khan, underscoring ongoing challenges in the fight against the disease despite repeated mass vaccination drives.
A day earlier, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of health (NIH) confirmed 71st case in Sindh’s Jacobabad.
The national tally for WPV1 cases in 2024 now stands at 72, with Balochistan reporting the highest number at 27 cases, followed by 21 each from Sindh, 22 from KP, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
health officials stressed that polio remains a paralysing disease with no known cure, emphasising the critical need for vaccination.
“Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine immunisation schedule for children under five are essential to building immunity against this devastating virus,” a senior health official said.
To counter the resurgence, the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, in collaboration with the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI), continues to conduct nationwide mass vaccination campaigns.
The EPI also provides immunisation services against 12 childhood diseases free of charge at health facilities across the country.
The year’s first nationwide polio vaccination campaign is scheduled from February 3 to February 9, 2025.
The health authorities have urged parents to ensure that all children under five receive the vaccine during the campaign.
Efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have faced multiple challenges, including vaccine hesitancy and logistical hurdles in remote regions. However, health officials remain committed to eliminating the virus, citing significant progress in reducing cases over the years.
Despite setbacks, experts emphasise that continued public cooperation is essential to achieving polio-free status.
The upcoming nationwide vaccination drive will mobilise thousands of health workers to deliver vaccines to children at their doorsteps and health centres, ensuring no child is left behind in the fight against polio.
Efforts are being coordinated with community leaders and international health agencies to strengthen public awareness and trust in vaccination efforts.
The officials remain hopeful that a sustained, concerted effort will turn the tide against the resurgence and ultimately lead to Pakistan’s success in eradicating the virus.
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Sierra Leone declares public health emergency over mpox
2025-01-14 10:49:00
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Sierra Leone declared a public health emergency on Monday to combat mpox, announcing it was stepping up surveillance at its borders after confirming two cases of the deadly viral disease.
“The confirmation of two cases of mpox in the country has prompted immediate action as mandated by the public health act,” health Minister Austin Demby told reporters in Freetown.
“On behalf of the government of Sierra Leone, I am declaring a health+emergency/” rel=”tag” class=”textTag”>public health emergency.”
Last week Sierra Leone reported its first confirmed case of mpox since the world’s highest alert level for the disease was raised last year.
A second case has since been confirmed after a 21-year-old man showed symptoms on January 6, the National Public health Agency said on social media Monday.
The public health emergency “allows us to act immediately to mobilize the resources needed to contain the disease, prevent further spread and provide care to those affected,” the minister said.
Demby also announced increased border surveillance and testing, as well as the launch of a national awareness campaign.
He added that Sierra Leone’s medical system was ready to respond to cases, pointing to experience gained during the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks.
“We urge all citizens to remain calm, stay informed and report any suspected cases promptly to health care authorities,” Demby said.
Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as smallpox, manifesting in a high fever and skin lesions, called vesicles.
First identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, the disease had generally been confined to a dozen African countries but began to spread more widely in 2022, reaching developed countries where the virus had never previously circulated.
The World health Organization (WHO) declared its highest level of alert in 2024.
Sierra Leone was one of the countries hardest hit by Ebola, which ravaged west Africa a decade ago in an epidemic killing some 4,000 people, including nearly seven percent of health workers, between 2014 and 2016.
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Here are foods that may improve your immunity during winter
2025-01-13 07:11:00
A representational image showing a bowl containing berries. — Unsplash/File
Consuming a balanced diet is important for maintaining overall health throughout the year, however, a nutritious diet is especially essential during the winter season.
As a result of less exposure to sunlight during the winter, your body may experience a reduction in vitamin D, reported Healthline.
Moreover, during these colder months, there may also be a need to boost vitamin A and vitamin C.
“Consuming a nutrient-dense diet is important all year. However, giving your body (including your microbiome) the nutrients it needs is essential to help build defenses against cold and flu come winter months,” said Kristin Kirkpatrick, who is a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Wellness & Preventive Medicine and president of KAK Consulting.
She added: “Vitamin D has been shown in studies to help with supporting immunity, and deficiencies in D have been shown to create a greater susceptibility to infections.”
“Vitamin C may play a role in building defenses against colds and can be found in citrus fruits, broccoli, leafy greens, berries, and tomatoes,” she further added.
Additionally, fibre, especially prebiotic fibre as well as probiotics that can be found in fermented foods and dairy plays a role in better gut health, supporting the immune system.
According to research, foods that are high in polyphenols such as extra virgin olive oil, dark chocolate (in moderation), and green tea, can further build strength in the immune system.
In addition, some other essential foods can also be eaten for improved immunity during winters. They are as follows.
Vegetables, specifically root vegetables that tend to grow better in winter months, are good sources of vitamins A, C and K. These vegetables include carrots, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, radishes, and rutabagas.
Brussels sprouts are high in fibre, whereas, rutabagas are loaded with potassium.
Oranges, grapefruit, and lemons are among the citrus fruits that are rich in vitamin C as are tangerines and limes.
Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries are all high in fibre and antioxidants and a good source of vitamins C and K1.
Nuts, in particular almonds, can help boost the immune system. They are packed with vitamin E and also contain healthy fats.
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Why resilience won’t solve the mental health crisis among young people
2025-01-12 00:30:00
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Around 20% of eight to 16 year olds in the UK had a probable mental health disorder in 2023, according to health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up” target=”_blank”>NHS statistics. This is up from 12.5% in 2017. At the same time, a 2024 report from the Children’s Commissioner for England found that more than a quarter of a million children were health-support/” target=”_blank”>not able to access the mental health support they need.
Some have questioned whether we are dealing with a “genuine” health/” rel=”tag” class=”textTag”>mental health crisis or a different problem—a lack of resilience in children and young people. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity, and higher resilience is linked to lower rates of mental ill-health in young people.
But the evidence around exactly what role resilience plays in mental health paints a more complex picture. What we do know is there are skills and actions that children can be taught to improve their mental well-being. But there’s also a good argument for not ignoring other root causes of children’s health problems.
Resilience often comes up in mental health discussions as a response to possible over-pathologising—the tendency to interpret even mild signs of distress or sadness as symptoms of mental illness. This in turn could undermine young people’s resilience because they are not able to differentiate between normal variation in human emotions and mental ill-health.
While the research evidence of over-pathologising in young people is limited, it has been suggested that it might be a side-effect of increased mental health awareness education and campaigns. While such efforts reduce stigma around mental health, they may have increased the perception that disclosing issues with mental health is socially desirable.
A more balanced approach to mental health in education and society should teach young people both about health-problem/EBE5513D6FAFB3A7E4B9AFF393DFC8E6″ target=”_blank”>symptoms of mental ill health to reduce stigma and about the normal range of emotions. This could involve noticing emotions without reacting to them—the non-judgmental awareness of emotions—and emotion labeling, since naming emotions we experience decreases their intensity. This may in turn enhance resilience.
Robust research shows that social factors, particularly poverty and discrimination, lead to poor mental health. Indeed, in the 2023 NHS survey, rates of probable mental health disorders health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up” target=”_blank”>were much higher in UK children whose parents didn’t have enough funds to support their children’s out-of-school activities.
Focusing on resilience as a solution to the mental health crisis risks shifting responsibility for mental health onto those affected, rather than calling out and changing policies and systems contributing to poor mental health.
The impact of global crises, including climate change, is another example of this. The NHS survey found that over half of young people aged 17-25 reported health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up” target=”_blank”>feeling worried about the climate crisis. Claiming that children and teenagers should just be more resilient can distract from the responsibility adults face to take climate action.
Similarly, problematic social media use may undermine young people’s mental health. Social media content may celebrate the achievement of extrinsic goals, which rely on the approval of others: fame, wealth and beauty. Research has linked a focus on extrinsic goals to poor mental health.
What’s more, mental ill-health prevention involves much more than resilience. It’s tempting to think that we have found the one approach, in this case resilience, that could shift the mental health crisis. But resilience closely overlaps with other mental health concepts and approaches. These include self-regulation—the ability to manage our thoughts, emotions and behavior.
For example, resilience and self-regulation are often fostered by the same approaches—the development of social-emotional skills or mindfulness training. And if we look at the brain activity linked to resilience and self-regulation, we find close overlaps there too.
Instead of relying on a single concept or approach, we should focus on the key skills underpinning mental health and well-being shared across different approaches.
For effective prevention, we need to start thinking about mental health skills in the same way we are thinking about fostering math and reading skills. Similarly, acquisition of mental health skills requires time, careful scaffolding, continuity, repetition and lots of practice.
This should be reflected in Ofsted assessments and much more comprehensive and clearer guidance on mental health curricula grounded in robust research.
Poor mental health can undermine young people’s academic outcomes and health” target=”_blank”>their lifelong prospects. It is time to recognize that piecemeal approaches, such as a focus on resilience, are just pieces of the puzzle. They are not the much needed transformational solutions to the mental health crisis.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the health-crisis-among-young-people-246827″ target=”_blank”>original article.
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Pakistan’s poliovirus tally rises to 70 as another case confirmed
2025-01-09 18:52:00
A child receiving polio drops in Pakistan. — Reuters/File
Pakistan reported another poliovirus case on Thursday as country’s tally for 2024 rose to 70.
The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) reported that the case has just come to light but was first reported in 2024.
The child who has contracted the disabling disease is from Karachi East, the National health Organisation’s Polio Reference Laboratory confirmed, taking the district’s number of cases to two in 2024.
EOC reported that the child had started showing symptoms of the disease on December 21, 2024.
In 2024, a spike and intensification was observed in the poliovirus cases in Pakistan, said EOC.
Balochistan was the hardest hit from the disabling disease as the province reported 27 cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 21 and 20 of the 70 cases were from Sindh.
Punjab and Islamabad reported one case each in 2024.
Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, and the number of cases on a yearly basis had significantly dropped in the country, until the recent spike in cases.
Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme explains that polio is a “paralysing” disease with “no cure” and “the completion of the routine vaccination for all children under the age of five” just provides them “high immunity against this terrible disease”.
The government has launched multiple vaccination drives as part of its efforts to wipe the disease out of the country with the last one being in December 2024 aiming to innoculate 44,000,000 children across the country.
A provincial week-long anti-polio campaign was also launched in Balochistan on December 30 with the goal to vaccinate more than 2.6 million children up to five years of age.
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Self-destructing vaccine offers enhanced protection against tuberculosis in monkeys
2025-01-10 10:00:00
While unvaccinated macaque monkeys exhibited signs of severe lung inflammation and disease following the Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (warm colors indicate inflammation and disease, bottom row), monkeys that received the intravenously administered Kill-Switch BCG vaccine (middle row) were equally or better protected against the infection as those immunized with the standard BCG vaccine (top row). Credit: Pauline Maiello
A self-destructing vaccine administered intravenously provides additional safety and protection against tuberculosis (TB) in macaque monkeys, suggests new University of Pittsburgh research published in Nature Microbiology.
The in-built safety mechanisms circumvent the possibility of an accidental self-infection with weakened mycobacteria, offering a safe and effective way to combat the disease that was named as the deadliest of 2024 by the World health Organization.
“Although the idea of intravenous vaccination with a live vaccine may sound scary, it was very effective in our previous studies in non-human primates,” said JoAnne Flynn, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of microbiology and molecular genetics at Pitt.
“Here, we focused on the safety aspect of IV vaccination and used a strain of mycobacteria that kills itself once administered to the animals. To our surprise, it was equal or slightly better than the regular TB vaccine in protecting monkeys against infection, providing sterilizing immunity in almost all animals.
“The live-attenuated form of the mycobacteria does not need to be alive for very long to provide outstanding protection and with this strain there is essentially no chance for a vaccine-derived infection, even in an immunocompromised host.”
Despite the ongoing global public health burden of TB, safe and effective protection strategies against the infection are lacking. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine—named for its developers—contains inactivated mycobacteria that infect cattle and remains the only vaccination strategy against the infection in humans. Injected into the skin, it provides only partial protection against TB in young children and no protection in adults.
To develop a more universally effective vaccination approach, Flynn partnered with colleagues at Cornell University.
In Flynn’s earlier work in macaque monkeys with collaborators at the National Institutes of health, researchers saw a 100,000-fold reduction in bacterial burden in the lungs of animals who were given the BCG vaccine intravenously compared with the standard intradermal route. Nine out of 10 animals showed no inflammation in their lungs.
To improve the safety of IV BCG delivery in the new study, researchers engineered two built-in mechanisms that instruct the BCG particles to dissolve either upon exposure to the antibiotic doxycycline or when chronic doxycycline treatment is stopped.
Mouse experiments showed that the BCG vaccine containing this dual safety switch protects the animals against TB comparable to a standard BCG vaccination but has the added benefit of faster elimination and safety, even for mice that were immunocompromised.
In macaque monkeys, the updated self-destructing BCG vaccine caused an even stronger immune response and better protection against TB than a standard IV BCG injection. None of the monkeys that received the updated BCG vaccine had any detectable level of lung inflammation eight weeks after being infected with live Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In addition, six out of eight monkeys had no traces of recoverable live M. tuberculosis compared to two out of eight monkeys that received the standard BCG intravenously.
Despite the additional challenges of clinical testing required for expanding the use of the updated BCG vaccine in humans, researchers are optimistic.
“We hope that this ‘kill switch’ BCG strain could limit safety concerns over intravenous vaccine administration and provide an option for a safer and more effective vaccination route for individuals who are immunocompromised,” Flynn said.
More information:
A BCG kill switch strain protects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice and non-human primates with improved safety and immunogenicity’, Nature Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01895-4
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13-month-old girl diagnosed with poliovirus in KP’s Tank district
2025-01-08 07:22:00
health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a polio vaccination campaign at a slum area in Lahore on August 2, 2021. — AFP” width=”700″ height=”400″ class=””/>A health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a polio vaccination campaign at a slum area in Lahore on August 2, 2021. — AFP
PESHAWAR: Despite multiple vaccination campaigns, poliovirus continues to cripple children as one more case has been reported in Khyber Pakhytunkhwa, the health Department confirmed on Wednesday.
The crippling disease was detected in a 13-month-old girl — from whom samples were taken in December 2024 — in the Tatta area of KP’s Tank district, pushing the total number of cases in 2024 from the district to five and overall provincial tally to 21.
KP remains the second most affected by the poliovirus and is only superseded by Balochistan which reported 27 cases out of the total 69 cases from last year.
Meanwhile, Sindh reported 19 cases whereas one case each was reported in Punjab and Islamabad.
Owing to the confirmation of the latest case in the KP, the health Department has said that the first anti-polio drive of the ongoing year will be launched in the province from February 13.
The inoculation campaign will aim to vaccinate over six million children.
Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, and the number of cases on a yearly basis had significantly dropped in the country, until the recent spike in cases.
Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme explains that polio is a “paralysing” disease with “no cure” and “the completion of the routine vaccination for all children under the age of five” just provides them “high immunity against this terrible disease”.
The government has launched multiple vaccination drives as part of its efforts to wipe the disease out of the country with the last one being in December 2024 aiming to innoculate 44,000,000 children across the country.
A provincial week-long anti-polio campaign was also launched in Balochistan on December 30 with the goal to vaccinate more than 2.6 million children up to five years of age.
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Second pig heart transplant patient offers vital lessons
2025-01-08 10:00:00
Lawrence Faucette, 58, received a pig heart at the University of Maryland Medical Center in 2023 to treat his end-stage heart failure. He lived for 40 days before choosing to forgo additional treatment after the transplant began to fail due to rejection. Credit: University of Maryland School of Medicine
Continuing significant advancements in the field of xenotransplantation, surgeon-scientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine provided an extensive analysis on the second patient in the world to receive a genetically-modified pig organ.
Lawrence Faucette, 58, received a pig heart at the University of Maryland Medical Center in 2023 to treat his end-stage heart failure. He lived for 40 days before choosing to forgo additional treatment after the transplant began to fail due to rejection.
The report documenting insights gleaned from Mr. Faucette’s experience, as the world’s second xeno heart transplant recipient, was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The paper documents initial signs of rejection of the 10 gene-edited pig heart on the first biopsy performed about two weeks after the surgery. It provides important lessons learned and potential new pathways forward as xenotransplant surgeons prepare for upcoming clinical trials in the years ahead.
“We have taken another important step forward in the quest to address the global shortage of donor hearts, and we once again found that the porcine heart demonstrated excellent systolic and diastolic function during the initial weeks post-transplantation,” said study co-lead and first author Bartley P. Griffith, MD, who surgically transplanted the pig heart into both the first and second patient at UMMC. Dr. Griffith is the Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor in Transplant Surgery, the Department of Surgery’s Vice Chair of Innovation, and Clinical Director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at UMSOM.
“Thanks to the bravery of Mr. Faucette and his loving family, we have a clearer understanding of modifications we can make moving forward to achieve longer-term success.”
Mr. Faucette had end-stage heart disease and was deemed ineligible for a traditional transplant with a human heart due to his pre-existing peripheral vascular disease and complications with internal bleeding. This transplant was the only option available for Mr. Faucette, who was facing near-certain death from heart failure.
“We are humbled by our experience, not only because of what we have learned but also from witnessing the strength and grace of our two patients and their families,” said study co-lead and corresponding author Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, MD, Professor of Surgery, Program and Scientific Director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at UMSOM and President of the International Xenotransplantation Association.
“Their sacrifice yielded crucial scientific insights into how we and others should proceed to learn how to prevent graft failure from happening in future transplants.”
Through their investigation, the study authors determined that this case underscores the need for continued research to overcome challenges such as antibody-mediated rejection.
Despite selecting a patient with low pre-existing anti-pig antibodies, the transplant team found a surge in these antibodies, which caused damage to the heart and ultimately led to graft failure. Further transplants may require more aggressive depletion and suppression of these antibodies. These investigations further elaborated the influence of other immune-mediated mechanisms in graft failure.
“Despite setbacks related to immunological rejection after a few weeks, xenotransplantation and living related organ donation remain our most viable pathways forward towards sustainable organ availability to meet the needs of our aging populations,” said Mark T. Gladwin, MD, the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of UMSOM and Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
“We certainly faced similar challenges in the early days of solid organ transplantation. Our physician-scientists continue to work towards a better understanding of how to prevent porcine organ rejection despite aggressive immunosuppression and early successful surgical and hemodynamic outcomes.”
“We continue to learn so much from these pioneering surgeries, and we are grateful to United Therapeutics for their support of our work as we help move the field of xenotransplantation closer to becoming a clinical reality,” said study co-author Christine Lau, MD, MBA, the Dr. Robert W. Buxton Professor, Chair of the Department of Surgery at UMSOM, and Surgeon-in-Chief at UMMC.
Bert W. O’Malley, MD, UMMC President and CEO, added, “The insights gained from Mr. Faucette’s journey, alongside the learnings from our first pig hearttransplant recipient, serve as a beacon guiding our ongoing quest to overcome the hurdles of this transformative medical advancement.
“We continue to be inspired by Mr. Faucette, not only by his drive to advance the science of xenotransplantation, but also by the gratitude he expressed to the UMMC team members who cared for him.”
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A person holds a test tube labelled “Bird Flu”, in this picture illustration, January 14, 2023. — Reuters
WASHINGTON: Louisiana health authorities reported the first human death in the United States linked to bird flu on Monday, while noting the patient had underlying medical conditions and that general risks to the public remained “low.”
Since at least mid-December, the patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalised in the southern state, when the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it as the country’s first serious case of human infection from the H5N1 virus.
“While the current public health risk for the general public remains low, people who work with birds, poultry or cows, or have recreational exposure to them, are at higher risk,” the Louisiana Department of health said in a statement announcing the death.
It said the patient had “contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds,” but had detected no further H5N1 infections nor evidence of person-to-person transmission in the state.
The news comes just days after the federal government awarded an additional $306 million to bolster H5N1 surveillance programmes and research, amid some criticism for President Joe Biden’s administration over its response to the simmering issue.
The amount of bird flu circulating among animals and humans has alarmed scientists over concerns it could mutate into a more transmissible form — potentially triggering a deadly pandemic.
Since the beginning the 2024, the CDC has recorded 66 cases of bird flu in humans in the United States.
“We have a lot of data that shows that this virus can be lethal, more lethal than many viruses we worry about,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, told AFP.
“For that reason, people have been quite alarmed about these outbreaks that have been occurring on farms and other places in the US and have really been shouting for the US government to do more,” she said.
Death ‘not unexpected’
The CDC said in December that genetic sequencing of the H5N1 virus from the Louisiana patient was different from the version detected in many dairy herds around the country.
And a small part of the virus in the patient had genetic modifications that suggested it could have mutated inside the body to adapt to the human respiratory tract.
However, such mutations are not the only thing that could make the virus more contagious or transmissible between humans, according to researchers interviewed by AFP.
H5N1 was first detected in 1996, but since 2020, the number of outbreaks among bird flocks has exploded, while a growing number of mammal species have been affected.
“While tragic, a death from H5N1 bird flu in the United States is not unexpected because of the known potential for infection with these viruses to cause severe illness and death,” the CDC said in a statement.
The World health Organisation has recorded over 950 bird flu cases in humans since 2003 in 24 countries, including a large number in China and Vietnam.
Nuzzo said the announcement of the US death did not change her perspective, but underscored her “big worry about the relatively unchecked spread of this virus and the urgency of doing more to prevent people from being infected.”
“This is a nasty virus that no one wants to get,” she said.
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Extended Paxlovid may help some people with long COVID
2025-01-06 10:00:00
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
An up-close look at how patients respond to the drug at different times and doses adds nuance to a recent finding that Paxlovid does not work for long COVID.
An extended course of Paxlovid appears to help some patients with long COVID, according to a case series by UC San Francisco researchers that suggests this treatment option holds promise for some of those struggling with debilitating symptoms.
These results are at odds with recent research that has failed to show the antiviral can alleviate persistent symptoms of the disease. The authors said more study is needed to find out which patients may benefit from the drug and how long it should be given.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 17.6 million Americans, or 1 in 13 adults, have long COVID. These individuals experience symptoms for months or even years after their initial COVID-19 infection that range from brain fog and headaches to respiratory and cardiovascular issues.
“We are about five years into the pandemic, and yet there are not yet any federally-approved treatments for long COVID,” said Alison Cohen, Ph.D., MPH, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF and first author of the paper. “This is not a silver bullet, but it may help a lot of people in a meaningful way.”
The study appears Jan. 6 in the journal Communications Medicine.
Interviews with patients reveal the drug helps some
In June, a randomized controlled clinical trial of a 15-day course of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, the drug combination marketed as Paxlovid, concluded that it was safe, although it did not lessen long COVID symptoms. The researchers noted that further research may show benefits for people with specific symptoms or at different doses.
The UCSF team collaborated with long COVID patients, some of whom are members of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, a group of people with long COVID and other associated chronic conditions who are also researchers. The researchers took a closer look at what happened when people took a longer course of Paxlovid to see if it might work in people with specific symptoms or at different times in their disease.
They also examined the experiences of people who contracted different strains of SARS-CoV-2. They found that five of the 13 patients in the study experienced sustained improvements in their symptoms. Others experienced temporary reprieves; and some had no improvement. Treatment lengths varied, but many took Paxlovid for 15 days.
For example, a 56-year-old man who developed long COVID at the start of the pandemic was plagued for more than two years with fatigue, headaches, photosensitivity, brain fog, exercise intolerance, elevated heart rate and joint pain. He took Paxlovid for five days in September of 2022 with no change in his symptoms. Three months later, he took it for 15 days and reported that both his cognitive and his physical symptoms improved.
And a 45-year-old woman who developed long COVID in January of 2022 experienced fatigue, breathing difficulties, chest pain, weight loss and migraines for months after her infection. A five-day course of Paxlovid in October of 2022 gave her a three-day reprieve from her symptoms. But when she took a 15-day course the following month, it did not affect her symptoms at all.
With more than 200 symptoms ascribed to the condition, long COVID has remained difficult to define, diagnose or treat. Researchers are still trying to understand the biological mechanisms that underlie the disorder; and UCSF has launched the world’s first long COVID tissue bank.
“If we’ve learned one thing over the last four years, it’s that long COVID is complex, and figuring out why some people benefit so remarkably from antiviral treatment while others don’t is one of the most important questions for the field,” said study co-author Michael Peluso, MD, principal investigator of the UCSF long COVID research program and an infectious disease researcher in the UCSF School of Medicine. “We are going to need to embrace that complexity to get answers for the millions of people suffering from this condition.”
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Extended Paxlovid may help some people with long COVID (2025, January 6)
retrieved 6 January 2025
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