Paxlovid: Patients corona positive again a few days after treatment with medication

Created: 2022-08-02 13:54

By: Martina Lippl

Corona drug Paxlovid prevents severe disease progression.

But there is a rare problem.

© Richard B. Levine/imago

Paxlovid prevents severe Covid disease progression.

But US President Joe Biden is corona positive again after a few days.

What is behind the relapse?

Munich – Paxlovid is considered a “game changer” in the coronavirus pandemic.

The drug inhibits virus replication in corona infected people.

Doctors are convinced that timely therapy with Plaxlovid reduces the risk of a severe course of the disease.

Rare phenomenon after Pavloxide therapy: Joe Biden (79)

US President Joe Biden (79) was treated with the antiviral Covid drug.

Paxlovid struck.

After five days, Biden was negative.

After four days out of the corona isolation, however, Biden is positive again.

This time the drug is said to be responsible for the positive corona test.

It is a rare but already well-known phenomenon - a so-called "rebound effect" - relapse.

Rare Phenomenon: What Triggers the Reboud Effect in Paxlovid?

It has long been known that Covid can return shortly after treatment with the drug Paxlovid.

A Covid rebound occurs between 2 and 8 days after the initial recovery and is characterized by a recurrence of Covid 19 symptoms or a new positive corona test after a negative one, the US health authority CDC said in May.

A special therapy is then not necessary, but you should go into isolation for five days.

"There have been no reports of serious illness," the CDC said.

Corona relapse after Paxlovid: Not only Joe Biden affected – experts calm down

US President Joe Biden is currently in isolation due to a corona infection.

© Susan Walsh/AP/dpa

The rebound effect is not a new corona infection, since the pathogen never completely left the patient's body.

The CDC released guidelines for clinicians in June of this year.

It reads that a brief return of symptoms in some patients is part of the natural course of a corona infection - regardless of treatment with Paxlovid.

A Covid rebound occurs in about five percent of the patients treated with Paxlovid, said Stefan Kluge, director of the clinic for intensive care at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf of the dpa news agency.

Medically, according to the current state of knowledge, this is not a major problem.

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Why is there a rebound effect at all?

It is initially unclear why these rare Covid 19 relapses occur.

Because the cases are rare, the data is still insufficient.

There are different hypotheses.

"The hypothesis is that because Paxlovid suppressed replication early in the disease, the immune system did not have a chance to recognize the full extent of the virus," says Dr.

Scott Roberts, an infectious disease specialist at Yale University.

"The drug does not work like an antibiotic," says Bernd Salzberger from the University Hospital Regensburg.

"By stopping the virus from multiplying, it gives the body time to build up its own immune protection and end the infection more quickly," explains the chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases.

The correct dosage of Paxlovid could play a role in a Covid 19 rebound, as a study by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggests.

In a case study, scientists were able to rule out resistance to Paxlovid in an affected patient.

They suspect that insufficient dosing could have been the cause of the rebound effect, since the entire virus replication could not be stopped.

Covid therapy: drug Paxlovid also available in Germany

The preparation has also been available in Germany since the beginning of the year.

In Germany, the preparation has so far been prescribed with caution, says Hamburg intensive care physician Kluge.

One reason for this is probably the fact that Paxlovid interacts with many other drugs.

The intake should be checked carefully by a doctor.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach recently called for the drug Paxlovid from the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to be used more quickly in Germany.

"It's something we have to do because it would save a lot of lives," Lauterbach said during a visit to Washington in mid-July.