Drugs that make COVID-19 even a little less contagious could have a big impact on the pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-09-29 09:01

International

Early treatment with a drug that reduced a person's contagiousness as little as 5 per cent could be as effective as social distancing strategies in stopping a COVID-19 outbreak, according to French research. The authors modelled what features of potential drug treatments would have the greatest influence on stopping the COVID-19 pandemic and found that starting treatment early is the key. There are currently very few trials looking at drugs to reduce contagiousness, but the authors say their data may be of value to drug companies repurposing old drugs or developing new drugs. They say it supports the idea that even a moderately effective outpatient treatment could be potentially beneficial for slowing the current pandemic.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Interface
Which features of an outpatient treatment for COVID-19 would be most important for pandemic control? A modelling study

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has challenged healthcare systems worldwide. Lockdown, social distancing, and screening are thought to be the best means of stopping the virus from spreading and thus of preventing hospital capacity from being overloaded. However, it has also been suggested that effective outpatient treatment can control pandemics. We adapted a mathematical model of the beneficial effect of lockdown on viral transmission and used it to determine which characteristics of outpatient treatment would stop an epidemic. Even though most of today’s COVID-19 research is focused on inpatient treatment and vaccines, our results emphasize the potentially beneficial impact of even a moderately effective outpatient treatment on the current pandemic.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France

Funder: Y.M. is funded by the Agence National de la Recherche and Région Hauts-de-France, projet Space-covid ANR Résilience.

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