Doctors say they may have finally found a cure for the long Covid-19 epidemic

A widely available antiviral drug could help beat the long Covid-19 epidemic, the mysterious condition still afflicting millions of Americans.

A new study found that some patients given a 15-day course of Paxlovid showed significant improvements in symptoms they had been suffering from for years.

Five of the thirteen patients – 38 percent – ​​showed sustained improvement, but almost all benefited temporarily.

One of those patients who experienced lasting benefits was a 51-year-old man who tested positive for Covid in August 2022 and experienced brain fog, fatigue, changes in his heart rate and sensory problems such as tinnitus. A year later he took Paxlovid for fifteen days and a month later reported feeling “radically better.”

Another was a middle-aged woman who developed severe Covid-19 in March 2020. Since then, she has suffered from persistent respiratory symptoms, fatigue, brain fog and body aches.

After a ten-day course of Paxlovid, she saw major improvements in brain fog, breathing problems and cardiovascular health. Her heart rate during exercise improved and she was able to take work trips without worsening symptoms, something she had not been able to do since the onset of Long COVID.

Paxlovid is an antiviral drug approved in 2021 for the treatment of Covid. It was hailed as a game changer with 90 percent efficacy that would ultimately stem the tide of fatalities from the virus. However, it is not approved to treat long Covid-19; doesn’t have any medicine.

The newest research by a coalition of American researchers is not Paxlovid’s first study into long Covid. Last year, researchers at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center found little to no benefit after a five-day course of the drug.

Researchers behind the latest study believe that an extended course of Paxlovid could benefit some people living with a long Covid-19 bout. Given the lack of treatments for the enigmatic condition, researchers say their findings indicate that existing antiviral medications need further investigation.

Dr. Alison Cohen, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and first author of the paper, said: “This is not a miracle cure, but it could help many people in a meaningful way.”

Some study participants saw no improvements in their symptoms for at least ten days, suggesting that longer treatment duration is the key to lasting health.

The standard course for Paxlovid lasts five days.

The 13 subjects suffered from brain fog, fatigue, breathing problems, body aches and post-exertional malaise (PEM) – feeling extremely tired after performing a manageable task such as washing the dishes.

A 56-year-old man developed mild Covid-19 and persistent long-term Covid symptoms in March 2020, including PEM, brain fog and joint pain.

When he took Paxlovid for 15 days in December 2022, he reported that his muscles no longer felt like “dead weights” for the first time in years. His brain fog decreased, his thoughts were clearer, and his memory improved. He was able to walk continuously and the arthritic pain in his hands disappeared.

Paxlovid can also help with heart symptoms associated with long Covid.

A 45-year-old woman who contracted mild Covid in March 2022 later developed long Covid and suffered from tachycardia, or an abnormally fast heart rate, memory loss and PEM. She was also diagnosed with POTS, a condition that affects the nervous system and causes the heart rate to increase when a person stands.

After taking Paxlovid for 15 days in February 2023, she noticed significant improvements in her memory, mental clarity and physical strength.

Her symptoms of orthostatic intolerance (difficulty standing up without feeling faint or light-headed) disappeared completely. Some symptoms of mast cell activation syndrome, a condition in which the body’s mast cells release too many chemicals, lingered but improved with treatment.

Some people experienced relief for a relatively short time, which researchers say indicates that Paxlovid is not a miracle cure for everyone with a long Covid-19 bout.

A 40-year-old man lost his sense of smell when he was diagnosed with Covid in March 2020. It returned as he recovered from the infection, but he had persistent nerve pain, gastrointestinal problems and blurred vision.

He had tried Paxlovid several times for his long-term Covid symptoms and saw improvement, although it took about two months.

And for some people, Paxlovid made no noticeable difference.

A 34-year-old woman who had Covid in the fall of 2021 developed PEM after recovery, leading to hospitalization for chronic fatigue. She received Paxlovid for 15 days in May 2022, but did not experience any change in her symptoms during or after treatment.

And a 45-year-old woman developed long-lasting Covid symptoms in 2022, including fatigue, chest pain and migraines. She had been diagnosed with POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic inflammation of the thin sac surrounding the heart.

She had completed a five-day course of Paxlovid in October 2022 and felt ‘normal’ for a few days until the symptoms returned. A month later, she was placed on a 15-day Paxlovid regimen, which “did not improve her fatigue or her other symptoms in any way,” the researchers said.

Their research was published in the journal Communication medicine.

Long Covid is an amorphous condition consisting of a constellation of symptoms, from brain fog and fatigue to heart inflammation and joint pain.

An estimated 17 million Americans are suffering from a long bout of Covid-19, which manifests differently in each person.

Some people experience only shortness of breath and fatigue, while others experience only brain fog and difficulty concentrating.

This makes diagnosing long Covid a challenge.

Two years ago, American, Danish and British researchers concluded that Covid has long been ‘greatly exaggerated’. Soon after, another British scientist acknowledged that the condition is real, but argued that more patients are labeled with it than actually have it.

Dr. Michael Peluso, principal investigator at UCSF’s long Covid research program, said: ‘If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past four years, it’s that long COVID is complex, and figuring out why some people benefit so remarkably from antiviral treatment, while others don’t is one of the most important questions for the field.

“We will have to embrace that complexity to get answers for the millions of people who suffer from this condition.”