Antidiabetic reduces the risk of infection with covid-19

Use of antidiabetic drugs after screening in individuals coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 can reduce the risk of developing up to 40% COVID-19 long-term, as a study published this Thursday in The Lancet reveals.

The investigation, which he led University of Minnesota (USA)analyzed the effect of metformin, a drug commonly used to control blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, in 1,126 overweight or obese people.

After two weeks of treatment, the authors found that over the next 10 months, the number of diagnoses covid long-acting was reduced by 40% compared to those receiving placebo.

In this sense, only 6.3% of respondents who started taking metformin in the first three days after they were positive for SARS-CoV-2 developed long-term covid during the specified period, compared to 10.4% of the placebo sample.

The researchers specify that this study did not analyze the effects of this drug in subjects who have already recovered from long-term covid, so they warn that no conclusions can be drawn about its effectiveness in treatment disease in these conditions.

They also suggest that further studies could determine the impact of metformin on patients with a lower body mass index and those who have already been infected with the virus. COVID-19.

“The covid A long-term emergency is a significant public health emergency that can have long-term effects on physical and mental health and the economy, especially in socioeconomically marginalized groups,” the statement said. Carolyn Bramantethe main author of this work.

The expert points out “urgent need” to find treatments and “ways to prevent” this disease similar to metformin, a “safe, cheap and widely available” drug that “significantly reduces” the risks “when taken as soon as the infection appears”.

The authors remind that long-term symptoms are caused by SARS-CoV-2 They have become a chronic disease that can affect millions of people around the world.

However, there are no “treatments or methods of prevention”, other than those, such as metformin, which reduce the “risk of infection”.

Other studies, they state, have shown that this drug prevents SARS-CoV-2 replicate in the laboratory, which is “consistent with predictions from our mathematical models of viral replication.”

“That could be the cause of the decrease covid-19 diagnoses seriously and long-term in this study,” adds David Odde, co-author of the study from the University of Minnesota.