A return of the Covid disease shortly after therapy with the drug Paxlovid, as with Joe Biden, has been known for months. The US health authority CDC sees the very rare phenomenon calmly. Such a “Covid rebound” usually occurs two to eight days after an initial recovery, she wrote in May. A special therapy is then not necessary, but you should go into isolation for five days. Stefan Kluge, Director of the Clinic for Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, sees it that way. A rebound occurs in far fewer than five percent of patients treated with Paxlovid. Medically, according to the current state of knowledge, this is not a major problem. In general, Paxlovid is recommended for patients who are not seriously ill but are at high risk of being hospitalized – for example because of their age. The tablets from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer contain two active ingredients that are intended to inhibit the multiplication of the virus in the body.
The drug should be taken within five days of the onset of symptoms – i.e. in the early phase of the disease. According to one study, it reduces the risk of hospitalization by almost 90 percent compared to a placebo.
Medium does not kill virus
Why Covid-19 can return after initial recovery is unclear – also because it happens so rarely. Bernd Salzberger from the University Hospital Regensburg points out that the drug does not kill the corona virus as a possible cause. “The drug does not act like an antibiotic,” says the chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases. “By stopping the virus from multiplying, it gives the body time to build up its own immune protection and end the infection more quickly.”
The duration of the treatment is not very long at five days, and remaining viruses could possibly multiply again afterwards. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that taking the drug could lead to the development of resistance. In Austria, treatment for infected risk persons has been possible since March through general practitioners; after the prescription has been issued by resident physicians, it is dispensed in public pharmacies.
Source: Nachrichten
