“We have therapies that work, and only 32 percent of what we’ve shipped has been used. There’s hundreds of thousands of doses available,” he said.
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Kessler directed people to a website, combatcovid.hhs.gov, for more information.
The HHS website says the treatments are for people who have mild to moderate illness and have not yet been hospitalized.
The treatments have been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration for patients 12 and older who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 10 days, and who are “at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization,” the site says.
The site contains a lengthy list of the criteria that would make someone high risk, including, for example, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and a weakened immune system. Being 65 and over is also a risk factor.
The site links to a locator tool that can find the nearest site where people can get the intravenous infusion.
“If you’ve tested positive for COVID-19, one of the first questions you may have is, ‘What can I do to reduce the risk of getting sicker?’ The good news is, there are treatments that may reduce that risk. Depending on your age and medical history, you may qualify,” the site says.
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“Early evidence suggests that [the] treatment can reduce the amount of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a person’s body. This virus is responsible for the causing of COVID-19, and reducing the virus may lead to milder COVID-19 symptoms and help you recover faster,” the site says.
Monoclonal antibodies made the news last year when (even before they were authorized) former president Donald Trump and other prominent politicians received the treatments.
Amid the drive to vaccinate people and the controversy surrounding states’ efforts to get shots into arms, it might be easy to forget that the treatments are available.
“If you or a family member test positive and are at high risk, just go to combatcovid.hhs.gov, and you can look up where there are sites that administer this. And please talk to your provider. We should, we have to, use up this very important therapy. We can save lives here,” Kessler said.
He emphasized that “timing is everything. You need to be treated early, within 10 days of symptoms, before hospitalization.”
“So if you have symptoms, please, please get tested early, especially if you’re at high risk, because you can do something about it,” he said.
Treatments have been shipped to more than 4,000 sites, an HHS spokesperson said in an e-mail.
The spokesperson also said people could go to the HHS’s phe.gov website for more information, and pointed to another treatment site locator.
The combatcovid.hhs.gov website went live in mid-December and was meant as a “central resource for the public and health care providers to find information about different stages of COVID-19 illness, NIH-supported clinical trials to prevent and treat COVID-19, and different treatment options available to patients, including monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies and convalescent plasma,” the e-mail said.
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Jeremiah Manion of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com.
The Link LonkFebruary 19, 2021 at 03:47AM
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/18/nation/official-coronavirus-vaccinations-are-underway-dont-forget-this-underused-treatment/
Official: Coronavirus vaccinations are underway, but don’t forget this underused treatment - The Boston Globe
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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