Research Article: Clinical use of remdesivir in COVID-19 treatment: a retrospective cohort study
Abstract:
Objectives This study investigated remdesivir’s clinical use to provide direct evidence of effectiveness for a low-middle income Asian setting. Design A one-to-one propensity score matching retrospective cohort study. Setting A tertiary hospital with COVID-19 treatment facilities in Vietnam. Participants A total of 310 patients in standard of care (SoC) group were matched with 310 patients in SoC+remdesivir (SoC+R) group. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was time to critical progression, defined as all-cause mortality or critical illness. The secondary outcomes were length of oxygen therapy/ventilation and need for invasive mechanical ventilation. Outcome reports were presented as HR, OR or effect difference with 95% CI. Results Patients receiving remdesivir had a lower risk for mortality or critical illness (HR=0.68, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.96, p=0.030). Remdesivir was not associated with a shorter length of oxygen therapy/ventilation (effect difference ?0.17 days, 95% CI ?1.29 to 0.96, p=0.774). The need for invasive mechanical ventilation was lower in SoC+R group (OR=0.57, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.86, p=0.007). Conclusions This study’s results showing remdesivir’s benefits in non-critical patients with COVID-19 may be extrapolated to other similar low-middle income countries, allowing more regimens for limited resource areas and reducing poor outcomes and equity gap worldwide.
Introduction:
COVID-19 is an ongoing global pandemic (as announced by WHO) that has caused over 600 million confirmed cases of infection and more than 6 million deaths all over the world. 1 2 Although the mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has critically mitigated the associated hospitalisation or mortality rates, medications are still needed for the treatment of hospitalised patients. Many clinical guidelines from WHO, 3 4 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 5 or National Institutes of Health (NIH) 6 have recommended…
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