Antibiotics May Be Effective Against COVID-19, Egyptian Study Finds
Dr. Saleh Alhosseiny (2nd R) and nurses, adjust an oxygen mask for a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit of Heliopolis hospital, April 26, 2021, Cairo, Egypt. (Fadel Dawood/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Antibiotics May Be Effective Against COVID-19, Egyptian Study Finds

The conventional wisdom says antibiotics are useless against viruses, but there are exceptions

A recent study in an Egyptian hospital shows that the recovery time of patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 who take either of two antibiotics (ceftazidime or cefepime) in combination with a steroid is similar to that of patients given the standard treatment for COVID-19.

This conclusion upends a bedrock truism of medicine: Antibiotics are for bacterial infections and are not effective against viruses.

“Antibiotics DO NOT work on viruses, such as those that cause colds, flu, or COVID-19,” says the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, writing “DO NOT” in capital letters to emphasize the point.

But a team of researchers, led by Dr. Ragaey Ahmad Eid of Beni-Suef University, and Dr. Marwa O. Elgendy of Nahda University, both in Beni-Suef, Egypt, knew of cases in which antibiotics were successfully repurposed to treat viral infections after it was shown that they were able to inhibit one or more stages of the virus’s replication cycle, relieve the bad effects of the virus, or manipulate the immune system to help the body deal with the virus.

For example, an American study about five years ago found that the antibiotic azithromycin could limit the replication of the Zika virus in the brains of unborn children, thus potentially protecting against microcephaly, which is caused by the virus in newborns.

In separate research, the antibiotic novobiocin was shown to have a strong antiviral effect against the Zika virus.

And a 2016 study in Thailand showed that the antibiotic minocycline could be used to inhibit replication of the dengue virus.

Testing in a lab setting had already shown that a class of drugs known as beta-lactams could interfere with the replication of the coronavirus. Computer simulations identified two beta-lactams – ceftazidime and cefepime – as effective at disrupting protease (MPro), a key enzyme that the virus uses to replicate.

Schematic representation of the currently used therapeutics against COVID-19. (Eid, Ragaey A., Marwa O. Elgendy, et al. 2021. “Efficacy of Ceftazidime and Cefepime in the Management of COVID-19 Patients: Single Center Report from Egypt” Antibiotics 10, no. 11: 1278.)

The clinical study, conducted in the isolation department of Beni-Suef University Hospital from March 15 to May 20, 2021, compared the outcomes of patients with moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 who were given the standard treatment (110 patients) with the outcomes of COVID patients who were given one of the beta-lactams – either ceftazidime (136 patients) or cefepime (124 patients) – together with steroid dexamethasone.

This standard treatment for COVID-19, approved by the World Health Organization and the Egyptian government, comprises at least seven different medications.

The mean recovery time for patients given the standard treatment was 19 days. The mean recovery time for those given ceftazidime was 13 days and for those given cefepime was 12 days. There were no deaths and all of the patients recovered without complications.

It isn’t clear how much of the antibiotics’ usefulness can be attributed to their efficacy in clearing coinfections, such as pneumonia, which COVID patients often develop, and how much is due to direct attacks on the virus’s ability to replicate.

Nevertheless, the researchers conclude in their article on the study, published in the journal Antibiotics in October 2021, that “ceftazidime or cefepime can currently provide COVID-19 patients extra benefits, being good antiviral agents besides their outstanding antibacterial properties,” and say that the use of either of these beta-lactams, combined with steroids, to manage moderate and severe COVID-19 cases can produce “better outcomes with minor side effects, instead of the currently used complex multidrug treatment protocol.”

Here are the latest COVID-19 numbers for the Middle East and North Africa as of 10 pm Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±0) on Thursday.

Country Confirmed Cases Deaths Recovered Active Cases
Afghanistan 164,727 7,420 146,768 10,539
Algeria 255,836 6,618 169,972 79,246
Bahrain 398,665 1,410 341,855 55,400
Cyprus 265,945 736 124,370 140,839
Djibouti 15,492 189 15,255 48
Egypt 430,480 22,735 362,525 45,220
Iran 6,483,799 132,624 6,121,353 229,822
Iraq 2,233,725 24,455 2,129,888 79,382
Israel 3,049,005 9,013 2,510,076 529,916
Jordan 1,280,106 13,271 1,146,900 119,935
Kuwait 564,735 2,503 507,174 55,058
Lebanon 948,728 9,657 682,977 256,094
Libya 441,959 6,044 395,676 40,239
Mauritania 58,381 962 56,026 1,393
Morocco 1,141,708 15,515 1,090,938 35,255
Oman 346,041 4,158 319,220 22,663
Pakistan 1,442,263 29,372 1,312,819 100,072
Palestinian Territories 507,565 4,859 448,204 54,502
Qatar 342,811 651 324,626 17,534
Saudi Arabia 699,069 8,947 653,972 36,150
Somalia 25,388 1,335 13,182 10,871
Sudan 58,208 3,442 40,329 14,437
Syria 51,569 2,995 39,263 9,311
Tunisia 917,814 26,362 791,720 99,732
Turkey 11,940,695 88,064 11,173,406 679,225
United Arab Emirates 851,537 2,253 780,893 68,391
Yemen 11,087 2,020 7,131 1,936
Total 34,927,338 427,610 31,706,518 2,793,210

 

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