Covid, vaccination and positive results with treatment

The director of the infectious diseases department at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, Matteo Bassetti, talks about another weapon to extinguish the serious inflammation that triggers Covid.

The fight against Covid-19 continues with no holds barred. Meanwhile, scientists are taking a new step forward. “Those who are immunized have 90% less ability to infect,” said Dr. Bassetti.

The vaccinated has the virus in his nose and does not have it in his lungs, and they are two different worlds. Having the virus in the nose means having a virus that usually stays in the nose for 2 or 3 days because the antibodies are mainly in the lungs and therefore it takes time for the antibodies to reach the nose to inactivate the virus.

So much so that these people have a high viral load, but they have it for 2 or 3 days – specifies the expert – while those who do not have the vaccine have the viral load for 10-15 days and therefore it is a ‘spreader’, one that disseminates viruses, while the vaccinated has a 90% lower ability to infect others “.

Bassetti also noted an article recently published in the journal Nature Medicine that reports the results of the Save More study.

“The results achieved with this randomised double-blind study with anakinra – explains Bassetti – are extraordinary from all points of view, and for the first time the combination of a drug such as anakinra associated with a biomarker, suPar, is used for the selection of patients most at risk of Covid progression. The use of anakinra has reduced mortality and disease progression”.

Bassetti explains that it is “a further weapon to extinguish the serious inflammation that triggers Covid”. And he adds: “My study group proudly participated in this Greek-Italian study with the enrolment of numerous patients”.

Anakinra (trade name Kineret) is a drug that is given to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious inflammatory conditions such as cryopyrin associated syndromes. It is not a “disease-modifying antirheumatic drug” but a “biological response modifier”, considered capable of selectively targeting the pathological element of the disease. Already last February, a study by the San Raffaele hospital had shown that anakinra is able to reduce mortality in severe Covid-19 patients.

Stressing on the need to vaccinate, Bassetti added, “no one is here to say that the vaccinated person is free from any problem however, if I am vaccinated and I also have a positive swab, the serious disease does not come to me . So, in an ideal world in which we are all vaccinated, I don’t even care about swabing anymore, because the virus becomes like a cold.”

Bassetti then states that “it is absolutely not true that” in the battle against Covid-19 “everything is about vaccines and not treatments” . “But – he remarks – I want to understand why, if I have the possibility of having a double protection net, I must have only one. I prefer to have two. anti-inflammatory drugs, anakinra, tocilizumab, cortisone, aspirin and all those drugs that we continue to use. But I – he clarifies – would like to use less and less drugs, because it would mean that the first network does not let me pass everything”.