Side-effects of drugs used for Covid-19 key part of post-treatment SOPs

PUNE The Pune district administration has now begun focusing on post Covid-19 treatment, including the possible side effects of drugs used during the treatment process.

PUNE The Pune district administration has now begun focusing on post Covid-19 treatment, including the possible side effects of drugs used during the treatment process.

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The district administration’s standard operating procedure (SOP) for post-Covid-19 complications states: “An important drug-related problem is precipitation of gout following Favipiravir therapy. Additionally skin reactions are noticed in Favipiravir therapy. With Remdesivir, worsening of hepatic functions in underlying liver disease patients can occur. This needs to be monitored”.

Dr Sunil Rao, group medical director at Sahyadri hospital, said, “We do follow all precautions before we start drug treatment. We conduct all the liver enzyme tests before the treatment. Once we establish that the person is healthy, we start the drugs; but, in the case of Remdesivir, we do observe in certain cases that enzymes are deranged after treatment. We had to stop it after the first dose. We have yet not come across people who face any worsening hepatic functions, or complaints from people who have recovered from Covid-19.”

The Pune district administration has started its training for doctors on dealing with post-Covid-19 complications, based on SOPs prepared by Cuttack university.

Dr Subhash Salunkhe, epidemiologist and chairman, state technical committee on communicable diseases, who heads the training committee said, “For any drug that needs to be administered, a doctor will definitely look for all possible side effects. We are working on such guidelines for clinicians across the state, including Pune.”