Experts argue that cases are rare as more people report Covid’s rebound after Pax Rovid

When Dr. Anthony Fauci got Covid in June, he took Paxlovid. It is an antiviral drug for people with mild to moderate symptoms who are at high risk of serious illness depending on their age and immune status. Treatment consists of three tablets taken twice daily for 5 days.

Fauci finished treatment and tested negative for Covid. However, after about 3 days, the test returned positive again. His symptoms (snot, sore throat, fever) also recurred.

A few people taking Paxlovid see a similar rebound effect.

Forch, director of the National Institute for Allergic Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday that “studies generally do not occur very often.” Stated. But he said there are “anecdotal cases” that suggest that rebounds are now more common than clinical trials.

About 1% to 2% of people taking Paxlovid Pfizer clinical trials After being negative on the test, it was positive on the coronavirus. At a press conference last week, White House Covid’s response coordinator, Dr. Ashishger, said the rebound rate for tens of thousands of people taking medicine in the real world was around 5%.

“When I look at Twitter, it feels like everyone is rebounding,” Ja said. “But it turns out that there are actually clinical data.”

A Small study In June, less than 1% of Covid patients were found to have recovered on average about 9 days after taking Paxlovid.and Large-scale research Of the 13,600 unpeer-reviewed Covid patients, 6% recovered their symptoms the month after treatment.

Dr. Aditya Shah, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic who led the small study, said it was difficult to self-diagnose cases of rebound. Ideally, people would have evidence that they were positive, then negative, and then positive again, he said.

The actual number of rebounds can be as high as 5-10%, but I don’t think it’s as common as the general community reveals, “Shah said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Said in may The symptoms usually resolve 2 to 8 days after Paxrovid ceases.

The CDC recommends resuming quarantine for at least 5 days if the disease recurs, as people who continue to test positive may still be contagious.

Treatment may not be long enough

Some illness experts suspect that the Paxrovid regimen is too short to eliminate the virus in certain people.

“One theory is that innate immunity cannot start fast enough because it must be treated within 5 days of the condition. This is an early stage of the disease,” said Associate Professor Peter Gulick. I have. Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University.

When someone takes Paxrovid, it “perhaps knocks down the viral load to the point where the body does not clinically respond to any type of inflammation,” Glick said. It explains why the symptoms first resolve within about 5 days.

However, some people may still have the virus in their bodies. This is especially true if the viral load is high in the first place or if the virus has spread to areas that are not easily reachable by the drug. In that case, the symptoms may recur.

“There may even be a reservoir,” Gulick said. “We do not know Paxrovid’s ability to invade certain small areas of the body where the virus may be present.”

However, Shah is uncertain whether extending the course of treatment will benefit the patient.

Disease experts have said that older people and people with immunodeficiency are more likely to rebound or become positive again after taking Paxrovid, but there are still no good data to support the theory.

In any case, the symptoms of rebound should be mild. A June CDC study It was found that less than 1% of people taking Paxlovid were admitted to Covid’s hospital or emergency department within 5 to 15 days of discontinuing treatment.

“Paxlovid is working really well and is preventing serious illness, rebounds or no rebounds,” Jha said last week. “That’s why the president took it.”

Biden completed a five-day course at Pax Rovid on Monday. Experts said he needed to know if his symptoms had recovered in the next few days.