Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Studies: Paxlovid Cuts Long Covid Risk; Zinc Appears To Help Treat Covid
Taking the oral medication within five days of testing positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection was linked to a 26% lower risk of lingering post-viral complications, researchers with the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System said in the study. That equates to 2.3 fewer cases of long Covid within three months of infection for every 100 patients treated, according to the findings released Saturday on the medRxiv server ahead of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. (Gale, 11/6)
As scientists struggle to unpack the mystery of long COVID, it’s hard to ignore that the majority of those who suffer from it share a common symptom - debilitating fatigue. Researchers estimate that as many as 85% of those with long COVID experience a crippling fatigue that renders them unable to work or manage even simple daily tasks. (Kroen, 11/6)
In other news about covid treatments —
Tunisian COVID-19 patients given oral zinc twice daily had a nearly 40% lower rate of death and intensive care unit (ICU) admission, as well as shorter hospital stays and time to symptom resolution, concludes a randomized controlled trial published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases. ... Zinc has a key role in regulating the immune system, the authors noted. "Zinc should be considered for the treatment of patients with COVID-19," they wrote. (11/4)
A man in Britain who was infected with COVID-19 for 411 days was finally cured after receiving the same cocktail of drugs given to former President Donald Trump, doctors in London said. His is one of the longest-know cases of COVID in the world, after another patient who was infected for 505 days, according to the team at the London hospital that treated him. (Ott, 11/4)
Dramatically fewer Black and Hispanic adult outpatients were given the leading antiviral medication for COVID-19 than White and non-Hispanics -- even as medical professionals knew they were less likely to get equivalent treatment because of long-pervasive racial and ethnic disparities. (Anteau, 11/7)
Also —
In a new study in BMC Medicine, Dutch researchers report that, 12 months after illness onset, people with initially moderate to severe COVID-19 still had impaired health-related quality of life (HRQL), but the same was not true for mild COVID-19. (11/4)
