The Minister of Health, François Braun, announced on Friday the establishment of a “conditional prescription” for the drug Paxlovid from the Pfizer laboratory. Since Saturday, doctors can prescribe this treatment against Covid-19 in advance, that is, even before patients contract the virus.
The idea is that they can go directly to the pharmacy in case of contamination, which should allow “facilitating the most fragile people to take the medicine quickly,” explained the minister.
With this treatment “we have a window of opportunity that is 3 to 5 days, beyond these 5 days it is no longer useful, the virus has taken hold and we can no longer control it sufficiently to prevent the risk of severe forms.” “, explains Brigitte Autran on our antenna. That is why “you have to go fast” and simplify access to this treatment.
An antiviral that must be taken within the first 5 days of infection.
In an opinion dated October 20, the Covars recalled that this antiviral is “recommended in the first 5 days of infection for patients over 60 years of age or who have risk factors for a severe form of Covid-19, regardless of their age, or who have an immunodeficiency. The Covars were already calling for the establishment of a “conditional advance prescription.”
Taking it reduces “the risk of hospitalizations and deaths in 28 days by 89%,” underlines the committee, which adds that “Paxlovid maintains its activity against the current variants of SARS-COV2.”
The general practitioner who authorizes the prescription must check the patient’s history and that the current treatment is compatible with taking this antiviral.
And “although the general practitioner does not necessarily know all the medicines that patients take, the pharmacist has a more global vision, he is the one who dispenses and who can possibly correct the intake if there has been a defect in the prescription,” he tells BFMTV Pascal Charbonnel, general practitioner.
An antiviral still little used
East antiviral has been on the French market since last February, but it is still relatively little used, too little according to the health authorities. The Covars called in October to “expand its use.”
“There were around 15,000 prescriptions during the month of October, but that is still insufficient. Much more really needs to be used,” said immunologist Brigitte Autran, head of the Health Risk Surveillance and Anticipation Committee (Covars), at the end of November . .
Paxlovid continues to be a complementary tool to barrier gestures that allows avoiding contamination, but also to the vaccine, which also reduces the risk of severe forms.
Source: BFM TV
