Jon Douglas, who wrote In It for the Long Haul, shared a series of papers that were discussed at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) that just wrapped up this week. A few caught my eye, but Douglas summarized tons at that link:
French researchers analyzed blood samples from 100 Long Covid patients, 60 recovered Covid cases, and 60 uninfected controls to identify immune and metabolic biolmarkers that diagnosed Long Covid with 99% accuracy.
Researchers in the Netherlands treated 16 severely immunocompromised patients with persistent Covid-19 using off-label nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, and 75% had viral clearance within 28 days.
Barcelona researchers studied 130 children and young people three months after Covid-19 and found that those with Long Covid had more autoantibodies and inflammatory markers, suggesting immune system involvement.
Researchers in another study used brain MRI to compare 23 people with cognitive Long Covid to 19 without symptoms, and they found less gray matter in regions tied to memory, speech, and executive function, plus white matter changes in key memory pathways.
Beyond the conference, Pfizer is testing a new Covid-19 antiviral, Ibuzatrelvir, and is currently in Phase 3 trials. It doesn't taste as bad as Paxlovid, has fewer drug interactions, and is designed to be more stable, so easier to prescribe. Hopefully that means more than just those over 65 can access it in Ontario.
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