newzandar | Inspired by the uncertain progress being reported with hydroxychloroquine, a New York physician intends to help his elderly COVID-19 patients with a therapy strategy that he says shows encouraging outcomes.
According to Dr. Mohammud Alam, an infectious disease specialist connected to Plainview Hospital, 81 percent of the patients he treated at three Long Island nursing homes who were infected with COVID-19 recovered from the illness.
Alam remarked, “I realized I had to do something in this crisis.” “I thought to myself, what would I do if this were my dad? And I would lend a hand however I could.
Alam stated that he made the decision to not provide the highly praised combination of the antibiotic azithromycin and the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine because of the possibility of deadly side effects for his high-risk patients, many of whom had underlying cardiac conditions.
Alam remarked, “I knew I could not endanger these patients.”
“The FDA has informed us that azithromycin can result in life-threatening arrhythmia and irregular heartbeats that may even be fatal,” Alam stated.
His patients had concomitant conditions like hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, or congestive heart failure and were receiving long-term acute treatment.
Azithromycin “may induce abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the heart that may lead to a potentially fatal irregular heart rhythm,” according to FDA warnings.
Alam switched out azithromycin with a different, long-standing antibiotic that has no known cardiac concerns.
“Doxycycline is an anti-inflammatory drug that shares characteristics with azithromycin, but it doesn’t pose any safety risks or cause cardiac toxicity,” the speaker stated.
The board-certified internist Alam said, “So I decided why not choose that?” and revealed the findings of an observational report he had worked on with 47 of his patients.
“We took a deep breath and realized we need to do something with the [limited]resources we have at the nursing home,” Alam stated.
Alam is not the only one who started taking doxycycline to combat COVID-19.
According to published accounts, Henry Ford Health System has begun utilizing combinations of the three medications due to what appears to be less adverse effects.
Alam started treating his patients, 45 of whom had acquired a high fever, dyspnea, and cough and had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Before initiating the drugs, which have not yet completed randomized controlled trials, he obtained consent from their families.
According to Alam, “the majority had clinical improvement.” “We got really positive results.”
Alam stated that the symptoms of 38 out of 47 patients who received treatment went back to their baseline levels. Two of the patients passed away, and seven were moved to a hospital.
Since there was no control group in the study, Alam admitted that additional research is necessary to determine the efficacy of his methodology.
Alam said that an 87-year-old woman who had heart problems and hypertension had defeated the infection. “Her daughter was extremely appreciative that I did not have to take her to the hospital.”
“In the end, we believe that we saved ICU beds, some hospital ventilators, and we sent fewer patients to the hospitals,” Alam remarked.
One medical professional suggested utilizing the decades-old medication doxycycline, which has been researched since the 1960s, as a potential substitute for azithromycin.
According to Dr. Sten H. Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, “there is a theoretical benefit of doxycycline over azithromycin since doxycycline is not associated with cardiovascular disease, since we’re talking about the elderly being the most vulnerable, or people with underlying conditions.”
Vermund said that two patients did die and advised that a clinical trial is required.
“I am hopeful about this combination, but a well-designed clinical study is critically needed to determine the right patient population, optimize dosage, and evaluate the side effect profile of this combination therapy,” continued infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Ryan Saadi, who received his training at Yale and is currently working on a ventilator technology at Quantaira Health.
Vermund also mentioned the need to take into account potentially less harmful and equally effective therapeutic options.