:strip_icc():format(jpeg)/kly-media-production/medias/3201695/original/022700700_1596775162-pills-white_144627-15779.jpg "4 Facts About Oseltamivir, Therapeutic Drug for COVID-19 Patients Infected With Influenza")
Although it is quite safe, the use of oseltamivir for COVID-19 patients is actually not the right choice.
As stated by an expert from Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Prof. Dr. apt Zullies Ikawati. According to him, from a drug mechanism, oseltamivir is not suitable for COVID-19, because oseltamivir is an inhibitor of the neuroaminidase enzyme.
The enzyme is present in the influenza virus, but not in SARSCov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“So it is true that oseltamivir cannot be used to treat COVID-19 because the target does not exist.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, because knowledge about COVID-19 was not sufficient, experts still could not confirm whether COVID-19 was a type of flu or not.
As the disease progressed, it was later discovered that COVID-19 was not a type of flu. Therefore, in the latest therapeutic guidelines, oseltamivir is only given when symptoms of coinfection with influenza are found.
“So I think oseltamivir is still relatively safe to use, if there are indications to use it,” said Zullies.
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