Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19
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Abstract
Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was initially detected at the end of 2019, there is no specific drug established for the treatment and due to its homology with the SARS virus, remdesivir has been considered as a therapeutic option. At beginning of august 2020, this drug is available in Ecuador, several studies have been carried out in order to evaluate remdesevir as a treatment drug for COVID-19 infection. Several studies reported that remdesivir is effective in most cases, nevertheless, these studies have some limitations and it is not clear enough if remdesivir reduces or not viral RNA load and mortality.
Objective: To carry out a narrative review of the scientific literature which describes remdesivir as an antiviral option for the treatment of patients with COVID-19, as well as synthesize the evidence found about efficacy, safety, and reduction of mortality in COVID-19 patients treated with remdesivir.
Material and methods: A bibliographic review of the articles published in the databases: PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus were carried out. A defined time limit was applied between april and october 2020. The selection of articles was made based on the following criteria: clinical trials, studies with quantitative methodology, and bibliographic reviews.
Results: 28 scientific articles were reviewed, it was observed that several studies report that treatment with remdesivir shows benefits in the clinical evolution, however, limitations are pointed out and certain doubts are reported about the efficacy of the treatment in reducing viral load and mortality.
Conclusions: The results of the different clinical trials, randomized studies evaluated in our review, contradictory results were observed, certain authors report a notable benefit of the use of remdesivir in patients with severe and moderate disease due to COVID-19, preventing progression to severe pneumonia and generating rapid improvement in patients treated with this drug; however, limitations are reported, the efficacy of the drug in reducing viral RNA load rates and reducing mortality is not yet clear.
