National Health Insurance Fund: The pill reduces the risk of infection and the severity of the disease by about 30% • Family Health Specialist: "Aspirin is a protective factor"
A bottle of aspirin pills // Photo: Gettyimages
Is the old and popular drug aspirin also helpful in treating corona?
A study conducted at the National Health Insurance Fund, Barzilai Hospital and Bar Ilan University found that those who took the pill had a 29% lower risk of contracting corona compared to those who did not.
It also turned out that the duration of the disease in aspirin users was two or three days shorter than in those who did not take aspirin.
The study included 10,477 national insureds who underwent corona tests during the first wave.
The study also found that among those hospitalized with corona, the mortality rate was lower among those who took aspirin (14%) compared with those who did not take (19%).
"We found that aspirin is unequivocally a protective factor. The pill affected both the duration of the disease and the severity of the disease and even mortality," said Dr. Ilan Green, acting director of the Department of Family Medicine at Leumit.
He said, "Even in the age of vaccines, this still has significance. First, because not the entire population has been vaccinated and it certainly affects them. Second, there is a period of time before the vaccine has an effect, and in addition, the vaccine is not 100% effective. Not complete, and aspirin can be another layer in the defense. "
By the way, the use of aspirin was very popular during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, so it was believed that it could help prevent infection.
This belief was proven correct several decades later, when studies demonstrated the effectiveness of the drug against RNA viruses.
These studies have shown that in addition to its known anti-inflammatory effects, aspirin can regulate immune responses and allow the immune system to fight viral infections.
