The bar of 1,000 hospitalizations per day on average for patients with Covid-19 was exceeded on Thursday, for the first time since the end of October, almost at the peak of the eighth wave of the epidemic.
On this first day of December, the ninth wave of coronavirus in France – as epidemiologists and Élisabeth Borne confirmed this Tuesday – is worrying and could upset the end-of-year celebrations. Especially since French hospitals are facing a triple epidemic: Covid-19, influenza and RSV bronchiolitis.
To avoid congestion in services due to the coronavirus, several scientists have recalled the existence of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral drug, which they consider too rarely prescribed.
“You really need to use it a lot more”
“There is an effective treatment against the virus that protects 90% of mortality but it is not prescribed enough and it affects frail and elderly people,” Xavier Lescure, an infectious disease specialist at the Bichat hospital in Paris, told BFMTV.
Recommended since January 21 by the High Health Authority (HAS) and the National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM), this treatment “targets the enzyme necessary for viral replication, type 3C protease, and by inhibiting its action, blocks replication”. of SARS-CoV-2 in the body,” said Public Health France.
The immunologist Brigitte Autran, who chairs the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks (Covars) – which replaced the Scientific Council – clarified on Monday to France 2: “It is an antiviral that blocks the replication (of the virus, note), which allows , when taken in the first 3 or 5 days of symptoms, to prevent progression to severe forms.
But, according to her, her recipe still wouldn’t meet the committee’s expectations.
“There were around 15,000 recipes during the month of October but it is still insufficient, you really have to use much more,” he lamented.
An “information problem”
General practitioners continue to prescribe too little Paxlovid due to a “problem of information, awareness”, lamented Xavier Lescure.
However, in late January, the HAS announced that it had “developed rapid responses to support city doctors with the arrival of the first doses of Paxlovid.”
“Doctors have a lot to do,” said the infectious disease specialist.
Then he launched an appeal, on our antenna, to people considered at risk of contracting severe forms of Covid-19: “If your doctor does not prescribe it, you can ask for antiviral treatment.”
Source: BFM TV
