CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — By now, any hospitals in Pennsylvania have received their cut of Remdesivir, the anti-viral drug used to help treat people with COVID-19.
51 hospitals in Pennsylvania were chosen by the Department of Health, based on their number of COVID-19 patients, to receive Remdesivir. 5 hospitals in our area have started using it on patients.
Geisinger Holy Spirit Hospital was one of them. It was given 18 vials, which is enough to treat just three patients. Dr. Stanley Martin, Director of Infectious Diseases at Geisinger, said the patients who received the drug were chosen by a team.
"We did this ya know essentially as a committee," Dr. Martin said. "It's important that it's not just one person whose making a decision like that. We have infectious disease specialists, we have hospital specialists, and critical care specialists involved in that decision-making process."
Administered through an IV over a 5-day or 10-day course, Dr. Martin said the anti-viral drug works by stopping the process of gene replication.
But as Health Secreatry Dr. Rachel Levine said during her daily press conference Wednesday -
"There is limited information on the safety and effectiveness of this medication to treat people in the hospital with COVID-19," Levine said.
Because the drug is not fully FDA approved, there's little data available and a lot of learning to be done.
"We don't have the full published data from the NIH study," Dr. Martin said. "How you study these things matter because some people probably benefit from them more than others."
The FDA gave an emergency authorization after a recent clinical trial showed a shortened recovery time in some people.
Dr. Martin said side effects are proven to be mild. Some people might experience an infusion reaction or inflammation of the liver. He said the most important thing people need to realize is the drug is not a magical cure-all for COVID-19
"This is not something we would expect to see over night," Dr. Martin said. "This is something you expect to see over several days."
The Remdesivir supply is being managed by the federal government, and will provide weekly supplies to the state for the next several weeks.