Is there a "special medicine" for Neocon? How to use antiviral drugs scientifically?

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Recently, some antiviral drugs used to treat new coronavirus infections have been branded as “potent drugs”, causing many netizens to pay attention and rush to buy them. Is it necessary to stock up on these antiviral drugs? And how to use them scientifically and reasonably? The National Health and Wellness Commission organized the response from Tong Zhaohui, vice president of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University and director of Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases, and Wang Guiqiang, director of the Infection Department of Peking University First Hospital.

“First of all, it should be clear that there is no specific drug for the new coronavirus. Some antiviral drugs can inhibit and interfere with neo-coronavirus replication, but these drugs need to be used early in the infection and under the guidance of a physician for standardized use.” Tong Zhaohui said.

Child Zhaohui introduced, antiviral drugs within 5 days of the onset of the disease, especially within 48 hours of the use of better results. In the virus has just entered the body has not been a large number of replication, antiviral drugs can reduce the viral load, reduce the virus on the body’s immune system attack, and then through their own resistance to reduce the disease to serious, critical illness development. If the onset of the disease is too long, the disease has progressed to severe and critical illness, antiviral drugs are ineffective.

“At the same time, these antiviral drugs are conditionally recommended for specific groups of people, for light, ordinary type has a high risk of development to heavy, critical type, such as the elderly with underlying disease, can effectively reduce the rate of severe disease, but in young adults and other people without high-risk factors to use is not useful.” Tong Zhaohui said.

Experts warned that there are many precautions when using antiviral drugs, there may be adverse reactions, there may also be interactions with other drugs, must be used under the guidance of a doctor to regulate the use, the public is not recommended to hoard drugs and use them at home by themselves.

“For example, some patients with severe impairment of liver and kidney function may need to adjust the dose of antiviral drugs or even not use these drugs; if they are using some statins, they cannot use drugs like nematovir at the same time. There are safety risks for patients if they use the drugs blindly at home.” Wang Guiqiang said.

Wang Guiqiang said the new coronavirus infection emphasizes comprehensive treatment and early intervention. Early close monitoring and follow-up are recommended for people at high risk for severe disease, especially bedridden elderly people with underlying conditions. “When symptoms such as dyspnea, wheezing or low blood oxygen saturation occur, it is important to see a hospital or community health service promptly. Early treatment includes both antiviral drugs and oxygen therapy, and oxygen therapy services are now available at the community level in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.”

Tong Zhaohui also reminded that medical staff and professionals must strengthen training on the use of new antiviral drugs to fully understand their mechanism of action, indications, adverse effects and interactions with other drugs to reduce the risk of clinical use of the drugs.

Recently, the ninth edition of the treatment plan recommended another therapeutic drug – intravenous gammaglobulin, also triggered a lot of netizens seeking to purchase. In this regard, Wang Guiqiang introduced, intravenous gammaglobulin can reduce the inflammatory response, but only recommended for use in the treatment of critically ill patients, “the basic need to use only for patients entering the ICU, and only in the presence of inflammatory factor storm and other specific circumstances to use the effect. It is not suitable for home use and has no role in preventing new crown infections and is not recommended to be stockpiled at home.”