Ivermectin warnings, a new COVID-19 antiviral, a changing threshold for care: These are the WHO's updated treatment guidelines
CTV
The World Health Organization has updated its guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, including categories of hospitalization risk to help doctors tailor treatment, and recommendations surrounding a new antiviral designed specifically to tackle the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, including categories of hospitalization risk to help doctors tailor treatment, and recommendations surrounding a new antiviral designed specifically to tackle the disease.
The new guidelines released Thursday evening include detailed recommendations for different drugs based on whether patients with non-severe cases of COVID-19 have a low, moderate or high risk for hospitalization.
The guidelines also adjust hospitalization risk thresholds, which could also make it easier for people with non-severe COVID-19 to get access to medication to treat their infection.
The threshold for considering whether a drug is worth prescribing to a patient with a mild case has been lowered from a six per cent reduction in hospitalization to a 1.5 per cent reduction.
The guidelines also go over drugs the WHO does not recommend, including new warnings for ivermectin.
This is the 14th update to the guidelines, which have been evolving over the past three and a half years as the clinical understanding of the virus evolves, along with the virus itself.
One of the new updates is the threshold for how effective treatment needs to be at reducing hospitalization risk in order to be considered for patients with non-severe COVID-19.
