Mexico City. Just as Mexico seeks energy sovereignty, it also needs to have a “sovereignty in vaccines. We had it and we lost it, because of the business of importing biologicals, instead of developing them here,” said Gilberto Castañeda Hernández, a specialist in the Pharmacology Department of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) of the National Polytechnic Institute.
Because covid-19 will become an endemic disease, he ruled out repeating mass immunizations. “Annual vaccination campaigns will be carried out, but focused on the elderly, with comorbidities and immunosuppressed patients”, as is currently the case with seasonal influenza, and due to the virus’s ability to mutate, he explained, the biologicals must be updated every year.
The academic stressed that anticovid treatments and drugs will continue to be developed, because “they will be needed. The countries make strategic reserves of medicines, because if there are mutations in the viruses that lead to a new pandemic explosion, they have a supply with which to respond and curb mortality.”
The vaccine “is not a blank check” against the disease, he mentioned, because even immunized, a person can contract the virus on more than one occasion. “What it offers us is the possibility of not developing severe covid and dying, but it is not a guarantee against the infectious agent.”
For this reason, he stressed that Mexico must continue to develop its technological innovation, so that “we don’t have to stand in line; be masters of our own health destiny, and not only against covid-19, but for other ills, such as measles ”.
Antiretrovirals
Just last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its recommendations on treatments and drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
One is an oral antiretroviral drug made up of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets, recommended for non-severe covid-19 patients, but at high risk of progressing to critical forms of the disease and leading to hospitalization, as in the case of people unvaccinated, the elderly or the immunosuppressed.
In Mexico, the Clinical Guide for the Treatment of covid-19 includes three drugs in patients with mild to moderate evolution, in the first five days of evolution and who are at high risk of complications. These are paxlovid (nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir); molnupiravir; and remdesivir.
However, the document warns that in the case of the former, its use is only indicated for those over 12 years of age and over 40 kilos, since “it has significant and complex pharmacological interactions.”
The Ministry of Health recommends that doctors review which medications patients take, including over-the-counter drugs and herbal supplements, to evaluate possible drug interactions. The application of paxlovid is restricted in patients with liver disease or kidney failure, and warns that “it has not shown benefit in critically ill patients.”
–
