Dr. Jen Ashton shares some promising news about using a common antidepressant to treat infection.
do have of course abc chief medical correspondent dr jen here with us as always as we take a look at the latest coronavirus case numbers from johns hopkins university the new milestone over the weekend now more than 3 million people have died of coronavirus worldwide while here at home more than 567 thousand american lives lost the cdc now reporting more than half of americans over the age of 18 have now received at least one dose of vaccine that is some encouraging news on the vaccine front however we are seeing some concerning signs about an increase in cases because we were seeing it happening in younger people due to these variants we’ve been talking about but there’s some interesting news about a possible treatment exactly and listen as we watch the goings-on of this pandemic remember we’re focused on prevention immunization we’re focused on testing and we’re focused on treatment you have to do all of those things at the same time so some interesting news about treatments in particular using a very commonly used antidepressant it’s called fluvoxamine it’s an ssri used to treat ocd and depression in two very small studies that have been published they showed some promising results in patients with covid treated with this drug in particular a recent study published in the journal of the american medical association compared head-to-head placebo versus this commonly used antidepressant in patients with covid19 the number of patients who got this drug had no hospitalization so some interesting and encouraging data there possible mechanisms at play amy it may prevent a cytokine storm that so-called inflammatory response which we know can be so dangerous in patients with covid but it is still under research not ready for prime time yet okay and for people who are suffering not hospitalized but looking for some treatment some way to aleve or alleviate the symptoms what do you suggest well i’m getting this question from patients on an ongoing basis they have covid and remember just because they don’t require hospitalization and we call it mild disease does not mean it’s easy it can last a long time so the recommendations now for patients at home give it time rest symptomatic relief with things like acetaminophen or ibuprofen and then for hospitalized patients again we’re seeing steroids run desevere monoclonal antibodies anti-inflammatories all of that used but clinicians so much better now at treating those critically ill cases so there is some encouraging news yeah that is some good news
