Research aims for best ways to treat COVID-19 at home

While more than 125 million Americans have received full doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, thousands of people in the U.S. are being diagnosed each day with the disease. Reports of severe illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths continue, more than a year after the pandemic began.While researchers around the world have properly prioritized vaccine development and life-saving treatments, less attention has been paid to the experiences of people with COVID-19 who are not hospitalized.Of the 33 million Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19, the vast majority have been instructed to quarantine and recover at home. And half of those who are caring for themselves without being treated at a hospital will become COVID-19 “long-haulers,” the term for those who continue to experience symptoms from the virus weeks, or months, later.Now, a study by UCLA biological anthropologist Daniel Fessler and colleagues at UCLA, as well as researchers at UC Merced and the University of Illinois, will explore the experiences of people who are dealing with the disease without hospitalization. Their aim is to produce insights about the best way to recover from the virus for those who are convalescing at home.“There has been so much variation in this disease, in what patients do and in how patients get better,” Fessler said. “Our goal is to find ways to help patients recovering at home.”TheUnited COVID Survivor Study will examine, for example, whether various over-the-counter medication...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news