I had Covid, I was hospitalized for 12 days in isolation, I infected my wife, but fortunately not my collaborators. So I know what I’m talking about ”, he regrets having let himself go to this confidence in front of the cameras of Agora Nicola Magrini, 58, director of Aifa, the Italian drug agency. But then it opens with Courier service: “I never feared ending up in intensive care, but seeing the sudden worsening of people close to me on the fourth, fifth day of illness made me realize how little we knew about the virus and how much it should be feared.”
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How did it happen?
«I think I was infected in Bologna by a doctor, an acquaintance of mine. It was March, I had recently been appointed to Aifa, and having met many people in my first weeks of work, and since the following week I was supposed to see Minister Speranza, fearing I could be incubating the previous Sunday, I went to the hospital for a buffer. A dear friend and colleague would do it to me. After the blood collection I stopped to talk in the corridor with my doctor friend, both without masks for a few minutes, almost to relax and look each other better in the eyes. It must have happened there. ‘
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When did you find out?
«On Wednesday he knew he was positive and on Friday I had a fever and some symptoms. Saturday still fever, Sunday morning after a new swab at Spallanzani, positive too. I recognize it, I was reckless. I was in the first month of my new assignment and in those weeks I saw so many people and shook too many hands ».
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Did he infect his wife?
«Yes, my wife Sabrina had a form of Covid a little more severe than me. On the other hand, apart from the first two or three days spent motionless in bed, with great fatigue and a lot of muscle pain, I recovered quite well thanks also to the work commitments that I continued to carry out. My meetings both in Aifa and with the CTS and the Civil Protection have never stopped. I logged in from the isolation room. Staying connected to the external environment helped me. I was assisted by nurses and doctors of high professionalism and great humanity. I understood how important it is to feel protected and followed by expert people ».
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Do you think you have had privileges?
«We were called Mr. Aifa, but no, I can say that all the other Spallanzani patients could share the same experience of safety and closeness as all the staff. The only advantage was that I refused an antiviral drug, which had been studied for AIDS and which, having seen the preliminary results, I did not intend to take. But I did not take advantage of my role in treatment, I rejected that drug in line with the recommendations published as Aifa by the Technical Scientific Commission where it was stated that that therapy had little effect in severe cases. Not selling hope is part of my training, I learned it at WHO where I worked for the last 6 years. My wife, on the other hand, was treated with cortisone, which changed her life (and is now also recommended by Ema and Aifa after the WHO study), and remdesivir (the only antiviral approved in the world with a specific indication for Covid, ed) accepting with generosity and a sense of responsibility to participate in the experimentation underway in Italy and in the rest of the world. I believe we must be grateful to the volunteers and patients in general who participate in the research ».
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Mister Aifa, this happened in April. What has changed in terms of therapies after 6 months?
«Now we know that cortisone is the cornerstone of treatment: it is proven that it reduces mortality. A second pillar is heparin. Monoclonal antibodies will arrive early next year, a very valuable option. Hyperimmune plasma? It is not yet known if it works, not even in the US after more than four thousand patients treated. As for remdesivir, new studies are now needed, in light of the current state of knowledge. It remains to be seen if this drug adds anything to the efficacy of cortisone and heparin and the only way to do this will be a randomized study (with participants randomly assigned to two groups, one receiving treatment and one controlling. ed) which will resolve our uncertainties. This is what forms the basis of our best knowledge on drug efficacy. In short, more research is needed and we need fewer but larger clinical trials, all randomized and more coordinated at international level ».
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22 October 2020 (change October 22, 2020 | 21:54)
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