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When the infection of the president of the United States with the new corona virus became known, Donald Trump’s personal physician still seemed very confident. The president plans to cure his illness at the White House, Sean Conley said in a first statement. A day later he had to change his assessment.
“This afternoon, in consultation with specialists from ‘Walter Reed’ and Johns Hopkins University, I recommended that the president be transferred to the military hospital ‘Walter Reed’ for further surveillance,” said a new statement from the personal physician. However, he was happy to announce that the president is still doing very well. Trump does not need oxygen therapy, but is being treated with remdesivir after consulting other specialists. The statement that Trump does not need oxygen was likely chosen carefully in relation to remdesivir.
The drug is given by infusion and inhibits an enzyme that coronaviruses need to multiply. Remdesivir received emergency approval in the US in early May. According to the US FDA, it is only intended for the therapy of children and adults who are being treated in hospital with a severe course of Covid-19. “Severe disease is defined as patients with low blood oxygen levels or patients who need oxygen therapy or patients who need mechanical ventilation,” the FDA said in a statement.
A study had shown that remdesivir can alleviate severe disease and shorten the phase of the disease by about four days. The patients who were treated with the agent showed a clear improvement after eleven days on average. Without the drug, this happened after 15 days. Patients who already had severe pneumonia and therefore required additional oxygen but did not yet need artificial respiration, benefited from this. According to his personal physician, this is not yet the case for Trump.
Remdesivir: Close patient monitoring is recommended
A video also shows the US president getting out of the helicopter that took him alone to the “Walter Reed” military hospital. In a video message that was recorded at the White House, there are no signs of respiratory problems.
Compared to established drugs, remdesivir has so far only been given to a few patients. Therefore, a close watch for unknown side effects is also a possible reason to bring someone to the hospital for treatment.
According to the FDA, an increase in the level of liver enzymes has so far been one of the possible side effects of the drug. This could indicate liver inflammation or liver cell damage, they say. The infusion can cause low blood pressure, nausea, sweating, and chills. The EU Medicines Agency is also reviewing a possible connection between the drug and acute kidney damage, as it announced on Friday.
According to Trump’s personal physician, Conley, the president of the United States has already received the first dose and is now recovering from it.
Second Trump treatment: experimental antibody cocktail
In addition to remdesivir, Donald Trump was once treated with an experimental antibody cocktail, which according to your personal physician received as a precautionary measure after diagnosis. The agent is a combination of two antibodies that are directed against a key Sars-CoV-2 protein.
One of the antibodies comes from a person who has recovered from a Sars-CoV-2 infection, writes the scientific journal “Science.” The other is from a mouse that has been genetically modified so that its immune system works similar to that of a human. In addition to the treatment of Covid-19, the agent was also developed to prevent diseases. However, it is not yet approved.
Instead, doctors are currently determining the effect and side effects in a study with patients who tested positive for Sars-CoV-2. According to the first interim results published Tuesday, the drug may reduce the amount of virus and shorten the duration of symptoms. However, the results known so far come exclusively from patients who were not treated in the hospital.
At eight grams, Donald Trump received a fairly high dose of the experimental drug. The data so far indicated, however, that there is only a very, very limited risk that the drug will harm those treated, quoted the scientific journal “Science” George Yancopoulos, co-founder of the pharmaceutical company Regeneron, which sells the antibody cocktail. . However, therapy with unapproved means is always somewhat unpredictable.
The further course of the disease is unclear.
Trump himself already reported on Twitter after the news about his admission to the hospital, shortly after midnight local time he wrote “It’s going well, I think!” and thanked everyone. “I think everything is fine!”
In principle, it is difficult to predict how Covid-19 will develop in the days and weeks after the onset of symptoms. It is possible for patients to recover on their own or with the help of medical care without the disease taking a critical course. However, intensive care physicians also report patients whose condition dramatically worsens after several days with milder symptoms. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is an example of such a process.
It is in the nature of Covid-19 that it can be very mild, but also very severe, and that the condition can change very quickly, writes Tom Inglesby, president of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, referring to Trump. Twitter. For this reason, it is important to keep the public and Congress very closely and transparently informed about the progression of the President’s illness.
Trump belongs to the Covid 19 risk group for two reasons: he is 74 years old and very overweight. Data from many studies show that older people, in particular, get seriously ill. According to a study of 4,100 Covid-19 patients in New York, the risk of a severe course increased more than 66 times starting at age 75. Additionally, there is a BMI of more than 30. In the New York study, this also increased the likelihood of being hospitalized or even dying (read more here).
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