Treatment with Molnupiravir of patients with Covid-19 has been conclusive, reveals a study carried out in the United Kingdom. This has also been proven in Mauritius, says Dr Soobaraj Sok Appadu, director of the New ENT Hospital, which has been converted into a national center for Covid patients requiring hospitalization.
“Molnupiravir is a ‘game changer’ in the treatment of patients with Covid-19. Some said that this drug would not be really effective. Time has proven otherwise. It gave the expected results,” says Dr Soobaraj Sok Appadu, Director of New ENT Hospital, in reaction to the results of a UK study of 25,000 patients that found Molnupiravir accelerated their recovery.
The main advantages of this antiviral drug is that it acts quickly and does not require hospital care since it can be used at home, says Dr. Sok Appadu. However, he specifies that the best chances of recovery occur if the drug is administered as soon as the patient tests positive for Covid-19, i.e. at the start of the infection.
“According to the protocol put in place by the Ministry of Health, those who take their screening test in Flu Clinics and who are positive for Covid-19 benefit from Molnupiravir if their health condition allows it”, continues the specialist. However, the product is contraindicated for pregnant women and those breastfeeding their babies. For others, it’s a dose of 800 mg twice a day for five days, in tablet form.
The director of the New ENT Hospital explains that Molnupiravir helps to reduce the viral load and prevents the replication of the virus in the body of the infected person. This causes the symptoms to fade quickly in the patient, who heals faster, as demonstrated by the British study. “No other drug produced in such a short time has given such results,” says Dr. Sok Appadu. All the patients to whom this antiviral was administered in Mauritius, Rodrigues and Agaléga recovered quickly, which allowed better control of the disease, according to him. “The drug has reduced the risk of complications, hospitalization and death,” says our interlocutor.
Dr. Sok Appadu specifies that Molnupiravir has mainly demonstrated its effectiveness since January 2022, when the Omicron variant was circulating in Mauritius and there was a lot of contamination. “Most of the patients did not develop a severe form of the disease and were completely cured thanks to this treatment. Some were able to return to work after three or four days. However, with the appearance of the new sub-variants of Omicron, it is difficult to say that the results will be the same. Only time and a new study will tell. »
Even if there is an effective drug against Covid-19, vaccination remains important to protect against possible complications of the disease. This particularly concerns the most vulnerable subjects, that is to say the elderly and/or who have a comorbidity, recalls Dr. Sok Appadu.
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Soobaraj Sok Appadu: “The use of Molnupiravir is a ‘game changer'”