Ribavirin Treatment for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Study

Yonghao Xu; Manshu Li; Liang Zhou; Dongdong Liu; Weiqun He; Weibo Liang; Qingwen Sun; Huadong Sun; Yimin Li; Xiaoqing Liu

doi:10.2147/IDR.S330743

Ribavirin Treatment for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: An Observational Study

Infect Drug Resist. 2021 Dec 10:14:5287-5291. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S330743. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yonghao Xu^#¹, Manshu Li^#¹, Liang Zhou^#¹, Dongdong Liu¹, Weiqun He¹, Weibo Liang¹, Qingwen Sun¹, Huadong Sun¹, Yimin Li¹, Xiaoqing Liu¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Critical Care Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510120, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread all over the world resulting in high mortality, yet no specific antiviral treatment has been recommended.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted involving 19 consecutive critically ill patients during January 27, 2020 to April 18, 2020. Ribavirin was given at 0.15g q8h orally upon ICU admission for 7 to 21 days. Here, 28-day mortality, lower respiratory tract specimens (ETA), and ribavirin side effect on the day of ICU admission (Day 1), Day 7, Day 14 and Day 21 were analyzed.

Results: All the nineteen critically ill COVID-19 patients (14 males and 5 females, median age 56yr) survived through to the 28th day of observations with 6 patients (31.58%) being discharged from the ICU. The SARS-CoV-2 viral positivity in sputum/ETA was 100% (19/19) on Day 1, 73.68% (14/19) on Day 7, 57.89% (11/19) on Day 14 and 36.84% (7/19) on Day 21. Ribavirin side effect was not observed in these patients.

Conclusion: Ribavirin is well tolerated in critically ill patients with COVID-19 and may benefit COVID-19 patients through increasing the virus clearance.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antiviral; ribavirin.

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82070084), National Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2017ZX10204401), and the Special Project of Guangdong Science and Technology Department (2020B111105001).