A widely available antiviral drug may help beat long Covid, the mysterious condition that still blights millions of Americans.
Researchers behind the latest study believe that an extended course of Paxlovid may benefit some people living with long Covid.
A 56-year-old man developed mild Covid in March 2020 and ongoing long Covid symptoms, including PEM, brain fog, and joint pain.
He had tried Paxlovid for his long Covid symptoms several times and saw improvement, though it lasted for about two months.
Dr Michael Peluso, lead investigator at UCSF’s long covid research program, said: ‘If we’ve learned one thing over the last four years, it’s that long COVID is complex, and figuring out why some people benefit so remarkably from antiviral treatment while others don’t is one of the most important questions for the field.
Long Covid, the enigmatic illness that continues to plague millions of Americans, may be beaten with the aid of a widely accessible antiviral medication.
Some patients who took a 15-day course of Paxlovid reported significant improvements in symptoms that had been bothering them for years, according to a recent study.
However, almost all experienced short-term benefits, with five out of 13 patients (38 percent) demonstrating long-term development.
A 51-year-old man who had tested positive for COVID in August 2022 and suffered from brain fog, fatigue, heart rate changes, and sensory problems like tinnitus was among the patients who saw long-lasting improvements. After taking Paxlovid for 15 days a year later, he said he felt “radically better” a month later. ‘.
A woman in her middle years also experienced severe Covid in March 2020. She had since been dealing with persistent respiratory symptoms, exhaustion, mental haze, and body aches.
She noticed significant improvements in her cardiovascular health, respiratory problems, and brain fog following a 10-day course of Paxlovid. She was able to travel for work without experiencing worsening symptoms, something she had not been able to do since Long COVID started, and her heart rate decreased during exercise.
An antiviral drug called Paxlovid was authorized in 2021 to treat COVID-19. With a 90% efficacy rate, it was heralded as a game-changer that would ultimately stop the flow of deaths connected to the virus. However, no medication has been authorized to treat long-term COVID-19.
Shortness of breath, exhaustion, heart inflammation, joint pain, brain fog, and other symptoms are among the symptoms of long-term COVID, which affects an estimated 17 million Americans.
A group of American researchers recently conducted research that is not the first analysis of Paxlovid for long-term COVID-19. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center discovered little to no benefit following a five-day course of the medication last year.
According to the researchers of the most recent study, some people with long-term COVID-19 may benefit from taking Paxlovid for a longer period of time. Researchers contend that their findings suggest current antiviral drugs should be investigated further in light of the dearth of treatments for the perplexing illness.
“This is not a silver bullet, but it may help a lot of people in a meaningful way,” stated Dr. Alison Cohen, the paper’s first author and epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “.”.
A longer course of treatment is essential for long-term health, as evidenced by some study participants who did not experience symptom improvements for at least ten days.
Five days is the typical course for Paxlovid.
The 13 participants had been suffering from post-exertional malaise (PEM), which is characterized by extreme fatigue following a manageable task like dishwashing, breathing difficulties, body aches, and brain fog.
In March 2020, a 56-year-old man experienced mild COVID-19 and continued prolonged symptoms, such as joint pain, PEM, and fogginess.
He claimed that after taking Paxlovid for 15 days in December 2022, his muscles no longer felt like “dead weights” for the first time in years. His memory got better, his thoughts became more concise, and his brain fog lifted. His hands no longer hurt from arthritis, and he was able to walk all day.
Paxlovid may also alleviate the cardiac symptoms brought on by prolonged COVID.
After developing long-term COVID, a 45-year-old woman who had mild COVID in March 2022 experienced memory loss, PEM, and tachycardia, or an unusually rapid heartbeat. Additionally, POTS, a neurological disorder that causes an individual’s heart rate to increase when standing, was identified in her.
In February 2023, she took Paxlovid for 15 days and experienced notable improvements in her physical strength, mental clarity, and memory.
Her orthostatic intolerance symptoms—difficulty standing up without feeling dizzy or faint—were completely resolved. Mast cell activation syndrome, a disorder where the body’s mast cells release an excessive amount of chemicals, had some persistent symptoms that went away with treatment.
According to researchers, Paxlovid is not a panacea for all patients with protracted COVID, as some people only felt relief for a brief period of time.
When a 40-year-old man was diagnosed with COVID in March 2020, he lost his sense of smell. He had persistent nerve pain, gastrointestinal problems, and blurred vision after he recovered from the infection, but it returned.
Though it only lasted for roughly two months, he had seen improvement after trying Paxlovid multiple times for his protracted Covid symptoms.
Additionally, Paxlovid had no discernible effect on certain individuals.
Hospitalization for chronic fatigue resulted from the development of PEM in a 34-year-old woman who had Covid in the fall of 2021 after she recovered. She received 15 days of Paxlovid in May 2022, but neither during nor after that time did her symptoms improve.
Additionally, in 2022, a 45-year-old woman experienced long-term Covid symptoms, such as migraines, chest pain, and exhaustion. Chronic inflammation of the thin sac surrounding the heart, chronic fatigue syndrome, and POTS were among the conditions she had been diagnosed with.
In October 2022, she took a five-day course of Paxlovid, and for a few days before her symptoms returned, she “felt normal.”. A month later, the researchers put her on a 15-day Paxlovid regimen, which “did not improve her fatigue or her other symptoms in any way.”.
The journal Communications Medicine published their research.
Long Covid is an amorphous illness that manifests as a variety of symptoms, ranging from joint pain and heart inflammation to brain fog and exhaustion.
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Long-term COVID, which shows up differently in each individual, is thought to affect 17 million Americans.
Some people may only have exhaustion and shortness of breath, while others may only have cerebral fog and trouble focusing.
This makes it difficult to diagnose long-term COVID.
According to American, Danish, and British researchers, the long-term COVID-19 pandemic has been “much overstated.”. Almost immediately after, a different scientist from the UK admitted that the condition does exist, but he maintained that more people have been diagnosed with it than have it.
Lead investigator Dr. Michael Peluso of UCSF’s long COVID research program stated: “If we’ve learned anything in the past four years, it’s that long COVID is complicated, and one of the most important questions for the field is figuring out why some people benefit so remarkably from antiviral treatment while others don’t.”.
To find solutions for the millions of people afflicted by this illness, we will have to accept its complexity. “.”.
