The COVID wonder-pill

COVID-19 is here to stay. Eradicating diseases like polio, measles, and even tuberculosis through vaccination was a comparably easier task, given the fact that the Novel Coronavirus is one that mutates alarmingly fast. Now, at a time when the new Omicron variant had been identified, a new ‘wonder-pill’ has also come to light.

The variant is not the most deadly in terms of the effects of symptoms, but its contagious nature poses the risk of an alarming increase in the number of patients who may require hospital health care. Although the severity of the disease is not as dangerous, being unable to cater to the number of cases is a risk to be considered.

Instead of now trying to fight the cause at the very root, ergo dissecting the virus in its entirety, attention is being given to creating a situation in which the virus and its variants do not pose the same threat as they initially did. COVID-19 hospitalised a large number of victims initially, and has been extremely dangerous to high risk patients. While certain parties try to draw parallels with pandemics of yore, given the level of medical advancement and living standards generally around the world, COVID-19 does not create as much a landscape of fear as the Bubonic Plague or the Spanish flu. However, as viruses usually do, this particular culprit has evolved to be as effective as possible, and the ‘Wonder-Pill’ presents a helpful weapon. 

The recently issued emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the co-packaged drugs developed by Pfizer have empirically proven to be effective in reducing death rates in COVID-19 patients, with an 88 percent success rate. The greatest takeaway from the study is that all the patients who took the pills survived and that the pills are also expected to lessen the load on medical facilities.

The miracle pill, branded Paxlovid, is an oral use tablet to treat mild-to-moderate severity of symptoms for COVID-19, in adults and children above the age of 12, and weighing at least 40 kilograms. It is only issued via prescription and is to be taken for no longer than five days by patients who are confirmed positive for the disease.

The key components of the pill, Nirmatrelvir, works as a an inhibitor that prevents the virus from replicating, while the second component, ritonavir, strengthens the longevity of nirmatrelvir, thus working as a strong combination to slow down the progression of the disease effectively. This gives time and assurance for treating the rest of the symptoms and assisting the immune system.