Adjunctive favipiravir for severe COVID-19: a retrospective observational study of the first 41 patients in Thailand
Article Category: Brief communication (original)
Published Online: Sep 10, 2020
Page range: 107 - 110
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abm-2020-0016
Keywords
© 2020 Wisit Prasithsirikul et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Background
Favipiravir is a promising drug for COVID-19, but evidence from a robust clinical trial is limited.
Objective
To describe the demographics, clinical characteristics, and various antiviral treatment regimens (with and without favipiravir) of patients with severe and nonsevere COVID-19.
Method
We conducted a retrospective observational study in all COVID-19 patients admitted at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute (BIDI) from January 8 to March 30, 2020. We compared the demographics, clinical characteristics, and various antiviral treatment regimens of 12 severe and 29 nonsevere COVID-19 patients in Thailand.
Results
Adjunctive favipiravir was given to only severe cases. The median length of hospitalization of patients either receiving favipiravir or not receiving favipiravir was not significantly different (
Conclusion
The findings suggested that adjunctive favipiravir might not be effective for patients with severe COVID-19, but further studies with larger sample sizes are needed.