Abstract
Background
Acceleration of negative respiratory conversion of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) might reduce viral transmission. Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is a new antiviral agent recently approved for treatment of COVID-19 that has the potential to facilitate negative conversion.
Methods
A cohort of hospitalized adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who had a high-risk for progression to severe disease were studied. These patients presented with COVID-19 symptoms between March 5 and April 5, 2022. The time from positive to negative upper respiratory RT-PCR conversion was assessed by Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression with the adjustment for patients baseline demographic and clinical characteristics.
Results
There were 258 patients treated with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and 224 non-treated patients who had mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The median (interquartile range ) time for patients who converted from positive to negative RT-PCR was 10 days (7-12 days) in patients treated ≤5 days after symptom onset and 17 days (12-21 days) in non-treated patients, respectively. The proportions of patients with a negative conversion at day 15 were 89.7% and 42.0% in treated patients and non-treated patients, corresponding to a hazard ratio of 4.33 (95% CI, 3.31-5.65). Adjustment for baseline differences between the groups had little effect on the association. Subgroup analysis on treated patients suggests that time to negative conversion did not vary with the patients' baseline characteristics.
Conclusion
This cohort study of high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 found an association between nirmatrelvir/ritonavir treatment and accelerated negative RT-PCR respiratory SARS-CoV-2 conversion that might reduce the risk of viral shedding and disease transmission.
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