PEORIA, Ill. – A COVID-19 drug being used in clinical trials has become available in the tri-county.
UnityPoint Health and OSF HealthCare have both recently received a limited supply of remdesivir.
Dr. Praveen Sudhindra, Infectious Disease Specialist with UnityPoint Health, explained the antiviral drug is given to people who require oxygen or have evidence of pneumonia because of COVID-19.
“It seems to shorten the duration of illness and has shown some clinical improvement,” he said.
“There’s been a weak signal of mortality benefit in some patients.”
Sudhindra said there have only been two studies done with the drug, but a trial published in the New England Journal that was still ongoing showed two-thirds of patients enrolled in the study were showing improvement.
People with kidney or multi-organ failure are not eligible to receive the drug, he said.
There is a consent form patients must sign before receiving the drug, which is a hospital-based rule and not an FDA requirement.
Sudhindra said the hospital had been utilizing hydroxychloroquine, but backed off administering it because of emerging data from higher-volume areas, such as New York City.
The Peoria City/County Health Department updated the local case count to 240.
Peoria County went up two, to 160, Tazewell had one new case for a total of 63, and Woodford went up to, to 17.
75% of cases since testing began were considered recovered, while 17% in home isolation, and 3% were hospitalized.
Nine ICU beds were in use, three of which were being used for cases being investigated for coronavirus, while the other six were confirmed cases.
