Without specific treatment or drugs and without a vaccine, the only defense that our body has against Covid-19 is the immune system.
► Read in: Covid-19: how our immune system works and how it fights the coronavirus
There are medications that weaken our immune system and it is important to know what they are to limit or avoid their intake.
Immunosuppressive drugs
The administration of immunosuppressive treatments, for transplantation or for severe autoimmune disease, produces immunodeficiency (deterioration of the immune system), since that is its objective.
In this category are cyclosporine, tacrolimus and other drugs, and biological agents used in transplantation, and drugs for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, such as methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, and the like.
► Review at: Causes of adult non-AIDS secondary immunodeficiency
Corticosteroids
Prolonged and continuous administration of corticosteroid drugs has very detrimental effects on the immune system, and a little less administration on alternate days; example of these: cortisone, hydrocortisone and prednisone.
There are many pharmaceutical formulas that contain corticosteroids, so a patient may be receiving them almost unnoticed.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
At high doses, or with cumulative doses, these medications can alter the immune response. Example of these drugs: acetylsalicylic acid (the best known name is aspirin), ibuprofen, diclofenac and naproxen, among many.
Anticonvulsivantes (such as phenytoin and carbamazepine), dapsone, thalidomide.
Antibiotics aminoglycosides (for example: amikacin, gentamicin); tetracyclines (for example: tetracycline, doxycycline).
The right doctor to diagnose and treat impaired immune system is the specialist in immunology and allergies.
In another matter, I invite you to watch our Internet program TV format “Medical Specialists in Health Care”. Accompany us in an interview, the specialist in immunology and allergy, doctor H. Shuru Estrada García, with the interesting theme: “Importance of the immune system in the times of Covid”.
–
