2023-06-09 10:04:14
A diabetes drug, both cheap and widely available, would reduce the risk of contracting long-lasting Covid by 40% following testing positive for Covid-19. This is the result of a study published this Friday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial tested the drug metformin. Originally developed from the French lilac flower, this treatment is today the most common in the world for treating type 2 diabetes. It is reputed to be safe, in addition to being inexpensive and widely available. .
A risk reduced by 40%
The study involved 1,126 overweight or obese people in the United States, half receiving metformin and the other half a placebo following testing positive for Covid-19. After 10 months, 35 participants who took metformin were diagnosed with long Covid, compared to 58 for the placebo group – a 40% reduction in risk.
The trial was conducted between December 2020 and January 2022, meaning it included the Omicron variant, which is believed to have caused fewer long Covids than previous strains. The same team of researchers had already shown that metformin reduced the risk of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and patient death by more than 40%.
Prevent but not cure
“Our data show that metformin reduces the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus” in patients, Carolyn Bramante, lead author of the study, told AFP. If confirmed, these findings might be “potentially landmark” for long Covid research, according to Jeremy Faust, a Harvard Medical School doctor not involved in the study.
The researchers clarified that the drug had not been tested on people already suffering from long Covid. Metformin cannot therefore be used to treat this disease, only to prevent it. The study also found that ivermectin, which has been the subject of fake news during the pandemic, as well as the antidepressant fluvoxamine, did not prevent contracting long-lasting Covid.
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