KOLKATA: Frequent changes in Covid treatment protocol and altering reliance on drugs that were initially thought to be effective but later replaced by more ‘effective’ ones remain a worry and anxiety for doctors who have been kept on their toes ever since the pandemic struck in March 2020.
Patients, on the other hand, have been at the receiving end of a forced experiment in the absence of a definite Covid drug.
More worryingly, doctors say, the trial with medicines will continue since there is yet no evidence-based Covid medicine that acts effectively and may end only with the pandemic.
“We are in a state of flux and will continue to do so for we won’t have the time to time to develop medicines in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.
Every few months, we have had drugs supported by reasonable evidence that it may act against Covid.
But then, it was found to be relatively ineffective in most cases and some other medicine was found to be working better.
The changing protocol has not only kept us confused, it has also left patients in a great deal of anxiety,” said CMRI Hospital director of pulmonology Raja Dhar.
While hydroxychloroquine was initially taken to be the principal drug, soon it was rejected in favour of others like Ivermectin, Colchicine, Flavipiravir and Remdisivir.
The latter was taken to be the most potent one till WHO declared last month that there was no evidence to show it worked against Covid.
Doctors point out that while these are existing medicines that were found to have anti-viral properties in limited studies and are being used purely for want of anything better, choices were limited.
“Remdisivir seemed to have worked in millions of cases around the globe which led to the dependence.
Now, do we have a better new drug?” asked consultant Arindam Biswas.
The city saw a mad rush for Remdisivir when stocks ran out last month.
“I know several patients who died without the drug and their families are repenting.
The WHO observation will console them but what about the others for whom the drug seemed to have worked?” asked Joydeep Ghosh, consultant at AMRI, Mukundapur.
Only two groups of drugs have stood the test of time, pointed out Belle Vue Clinic internal medicine consultant Rahul Jain.
“Steroids and blood thinners like enoxaparin and dalteparin.” Dhar agreed.
“I would rather interpret the WHO observation on Remdisivir as that the drug doesn’t work for all Covid patients across the board.
My experience is that it indeed works for those who require oxygen at an early stage,” he said.