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Donald Trump is being treated with an experimental antibody drug that has shown promising initial results, but has yet to be peer-reviewed. According to a statement from his doctor, the president received a single eight-gram dose of an antibody cocktail called REGN-COV2, a combination of two human neutralizing antibodies against the virus.
The treatment was developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which previously developed a similar antibody drug against Ebola. You are also taking zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, aspirin, and the heartburn medication famotidine, which is often sold in the US under the brand name Pepcid. Although the drug has not been shown to work against the coronavirus, researchers are studying it as a possible treatment.
REGN-COV2 is part of a class of experimental Covid-19 drugs known as monoclonal antibodies – manufactured copies of human antibodies against the virus that are being studied for use in patients with early disease.
Data so far is limited, but White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci is among those who say it has shown promise.
In a press release earlier this week, Regeneron said the first results of the trial showed that the treatment lowered viral levels and improved symptoms in outpatient Covid-19 patients.
But doctors have said that the president has numerous health factors that put him at risk for complications from Covid-19, including his age and weight.
The White House announced Friday that the 74-year-old president would be transferred to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC “as a precaution and on the recommendation of his doctor and medical experts.”
Both Trump and his wife Melania were previously described as showing “mild symptoms” after testing positive.
While doctors expect symptoms such as headache, fever and loss of taste to appear in the first week of infection, it is in the second week that patients can go dangerously downhill as the virus spreads to the lungs and causes breathing problems.
As an older man, Trump is already in a high-risk group, and bordering on obesity further increases his risk.
Figures from around the world suggest that the so-called death rate from infection for someone in their 70s is around 4%, but men are almost twice as likely to die as women and obesity triples the risk of hospitalization .
Trump’s positive test adds to a wealth of evidence that hydroxychloroquine, a drug he said he was taking earlier this year, does not prevent Covid-19, but in the past nine months, clinical trials have found treatments. beneficial.
Fever and headache can be relieved with acetaminophen. During the course of the infection, doctors will monitor Trump’s vital signs and blood oxygen saturation, revealing how the lungs work.
Other treatments are normally reserved for hospitalized patients, but remdesivir, an antiviral drug, is believed to be most effective when given early, while the virus is still replicating.
American doctors have raised new concerns about Trump’s high levels of “bad cholesterol,” which they say puts him at risk for a stroke or heart attack.
Given possible underlying health problems, doctors may be prepared to administer antiplatelet or anticoagulant medications if they fear you are at risk for blood clots.
Dr Barry Dixon, an intensive care physician at St Vincent Hospital in Melbourne, said Trump’s risk would increase if he developed pneumonia, which is associated with a high death rate, especially in patients older than 65 and those with illnesses. cardiovascular disease or conditions that affect the blood vessels of the brain.
“You have a much higher risk of dying if you develop this severe pneumonia,” Dixon said. “There are other risk factors and comorbidities, like if you are a heavy smoker, have diabetes or have heart disease.
Dixon said mild symptoms at first did not indicate that someone could avoid a more serious illness. He said that around the one-week mark people seemed to improve or decline rapidly.
“We tend to see people with very mild symptoms during the first week, that’s typical, and in the second week people usually develop pneumonia or not,” he said.
“If you see someone who just got it, they just tested positive, it usually looks good. But we would tell those patients to isolate themselves at home and go to the hospital if they are short of breath. Because in that second week of the virus, people can go from looking great to pretty rotten even in just 24 to 48 hours. It’s a rapid deterioration, and that’s what we saw with Boris Johnson. “
Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious disease doctor in Canberra, said: “If you are well enough to walk and breathe well, then it will be okay to go home for a while. But one proportion will deteriorate five to seven days later, so you will need to monitor how you are breathing and how you look. “
Professor Christine Jenkins, head of the respiratory group at the George Institute for Global Health, said that while “Trump’s ideas about prophylactic hydroxychloroquine treatment and disinfectants were fake news,” she would likely benefit from the many scientific advances based on In evidence.
It was difficult to estimate his chances of being admitted to intensive care or dying, he said, because these statistics changed frequently as treatment improved.
“At first we thought that if you had Covid, were in intensive care and were in your 70s, you only had a 40 to 50% chance of survival,” Jenkins said.
“Today, those numbers are not so bad, and the results of studies have come out with promising findings about treatments for people who become seriously ill, such as the drug dexamethasone.”
