To provide better care to infected patients, the Ministry of Health presented the new guide for Covid-19 cases. It is a document that was created to support medical staff in making their decisions. For this reason, it is very important that you know this information because it is useful for your clinical work.
What does it work for?
Now, within the field of health, the greatest constant is that knowledge must always be updated. With this in mind, on August 2, 2021, the first version of the Clinical Guide for the treatment of Covid-19 in Mexico. From the beginning the function of this document was mentioned.
This clinical guideline represents the perspective of representatives of all public institutions in the health sector, which was arrived at after a careful evaluation of the available scientific evidence. Healthcare professionals are expected to consider the entire content of this guideline in conjunction with the needs, abilities, preferences, and values of the patients in their care when exercising their clinical judgment. The guide does not supplant the responsibility of making decisions appropriate to the circumstances of each individual, focusing on people and considering the will of their families, carers or guardians.
Instead, now a group of representatives from all institutions in the health sector presented an updated version. The objective is the same but now it offers a more complete vision of how infected patients should be cared for.
The new international guidelines were also taken into account, such as the National Institutes of Health Guide and the guide of the Infectious Disease Society of America of the United States of America, as well as the COVID-19 treatment guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence of the United Kingdom.
Within the content of this new guide for Covid-19 cases, the approach that should be offered to patients based on three items stands out:
- Medications that can be used against COVID-19,
- Medications that should not be used against COVID-19,
- Medications that should only be used in research studies.
The new changes that all doctors should know
The biggest novelty in this version is that four antiviral treatment options have been added for patients with mild to moderate Covid-19. The requirements are that they must be offered during the first 5 days of evolution and only to those with a high risk of complications.
- Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir). Usual dose nirmatrelvir 300 mg + ritonavir 100 mg, every 12 hours, for 5 days, administered orally.
- Molnupiravir. Usual dose 800 mg every 12 hours for 5 days, administered orally.
- Remdesivir. Usual dose 200 mg on day 1 and 100 mg every 24 hours on days 2 and 3, administered intravenously.
While the fourth option that is added is a monoclonal antibody for patients with mild to moderate Covid-19. In this case, it is indicated in the first 10 days of evolution and for those with a high risk of complications:
- Sotrovimab. Usual dose 500 mg, single dose, administered as an intravenous infusion.
For its part, the new guide for Covid-19 cases also mentions that Fluvoxamine is reviewed but its use is not yet recommended due to limited scientific evidence.
On the other hand, other changes are that the recommendations for the use of ivermectin, colchicine and convalescent plasma have been eliminated, due to the lack of evidence for their use. In addition, the recommendations for anticoagulation in hospitalized patients with Covid-19 have been modified and the use of antiplatelet agents is no longer recommended.
For now, the full document you can download at this link.