Lopinavir/ritonavir combination therapy amongst symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 patients in India: Protocol for restricted public health emergency use.

Lopinavir/ritonavir combination therapy amongst symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 patients in India: Protocol for restricted public health emergency use. Indian J Med Res. 2020 Feb & Mar;151(2 & 3):184-189 Authors: Bhatnagar T, Murhekar MV, Soneja M, Gupta N, Giri S, Wig N, Gangakhedkar R Abstract As of February 29, 2020, more than 85,000 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported from China and 53 other countries with 2,924 deaths. On January 30, 2020, the first laboratory-confirmed case of COVID was reported from Kerala, India. In view of the earlier evidence about effectiveness of repurposed lopinavir/ritonavir against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (CoV), as well as preliminary docking studies conducted by the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization approved the restricted public health use of lopinavir/ritonavir combination amongst symptomatic COVID-19 patients detected in the country. Hospitalized adult patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection with any one of the following criteria will be eligible to receive lopinavir/ritonavir for 14 days after obtaining written informed consent: (i) respiratory distress with respiratory rate ≥22/min or SpO2of <94 per cent; (ii) lung parenchymal infiltrates on chest X-ray; (iii) hypotension defined as systolic blood pressure &...
Source: The Indian Journal of Medical Research - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Tags: Indian J Med Res Source Type: research