Bivariate vaccines, key in the prevention of Covid-19

Isabel Jimeno, Jose Ramón Blanco Ramos and Ángel Gil de Marín.

the pandemic for Covid-19 has promoted the study and development of a large number of therapeutic options (anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antipathic, etc.). “While at the beginning of the pandemic these actions focused on the use of treatments in the hospital setting, when the disease was already present, currently there are therapeutic options for outpatient management in those with mild or moderate symptoms, but with a high risk of worsening infectionaccording to José Ramón Blanco Ramos, scientific director of the Biomedical Research Center of La Rioja.

Blanco, who belongs to the Department of Infectious Diseases at Hospital San Pedro, has spoken at the XXVIII National Congress of General and Family Medicine regarding new treatments for this new disease and where they should be heading. “Along with vaccination, new therapies should be focused on those viral cycle targets that make it possible to stop the replication of the virus and that are not affected by the appearance of new variants”.

In this sense, the expert believes that they should personalize treatments that are supplied in this new phase of the pandemic. “At the current time of personalized precision medicine, there is more and more evidence available on the population groups that can benefit most from some of the therapeutic options”, in Blanco’s words.

In recent years, a large number of clinical trials have been carried out, which has made it possible to select the safest and most effective regimens. However, “given that this infection is constantly changing, due, for example, to the appearance of mutations, it is necessary to continue with active surveillance of the efficacy of these therapies and with the search for new therapeutic options clarifies the researcher.

As for the main treatment options that have proven effective, the scientific director of the La Rioja Biomedical Research Center reports that “a great effort is being made to identify preventive treatment options (before exposure to the virus) such as the combination of tixagevimab together with cilgavimab; and other post-exposure interventions (following exposure to the virus) such as, for example, nimatrelvir together with ritonavir. These guidelines are used “under rigorous criteria and prioritizing their indication in those risk groups”, according to the expert José Ramón Blanco Ramos.

Future scenarios of the pandemic

For his part, the professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Rey Juan Carlos University, Ángel Gil de Miguel, analyzed during the SEMG national congress the role that vaccines have had during this pandemic in the fight once morest Covid-19. 19. “It is true that it has been decisive, a key piece, but today we have many questionsace. It is true that vaccination coverage in the adult population has been tremendously high, but there is doubt regarding what we can do and What can we expect for the future?

To do this, during his conference he has exposed the possible future scenarios of Covid-19, starting with whether there may be a region Elimination, “which is unlikely in the short term”, or if we will remain with this endemic disease in our environment, “which is possibly one of the most relevant ideas”. If it remains with a relatively high endemicity, especially in the older population, “this will require incorporating new vaccines into the vaccination schedule of people over 65, 70 and 80 years of age, and of those people who are more vulnerable, such as immunosuppressed”, according to Gil.

Faced with this possibility of an endemic situation, it is necessary to think regarding whether we are going to continue using vaccines that we have used so far, or if we have to change and incorporate new vaccines. “The key role will be played by those vaccines that are bivariate, that include not a single variant, but rather have the ancestral strain (Wuhan) together with the Omicron variant.”

Another possibility is that we stay in a epidemic endemic situation, which is what we have right now. “We have a high endemicity, with many cases, but fortunately the vaccines, regardless of the ones we use and use, it has been seen that they are all protecting once morest serious forms of the disease, reducing hospital admissions, admissions to the ICU or death, and that is going to be maintained. Although we are in an endemic epidemic situation, with a high evolutionary potential, vaccines do, in some way, with these vaccine boosters, we can guarantee the reduction of the clinical impact of the disease”, according to the expert in Preventive Medicine and Public Health .

Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Medical Writing is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend the reader that any questions related to health be consulted with a health professional.

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