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Wednesday, May 27, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Worship...
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
PHOTO BY CONRAD WEILER
Chapel in the Pines in Camp Sherman hosted Sunday services
last weekend with the congregation scattered among
pews and out onto the deck to observe physical distancing
protocols. Virtually all in attendance wore masks.
— Last Week’s Puzzle Solved —
OHA to distribute
Remdesivir to hospitals
Oregon has received its
first shipments of Remdesivir,
an experimental drug that has
been used to treat patients
hospitalized with severe
COVID-19.
On May 12 and May 15,
Oregon received allotments
of the drug, which has not
been formally approved
by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), but
is being used under a feder-
ally issued Emergency Use
Authorization (EUA).
The EUA allows health
professionals to use the
drug to treat some severely
ill COVID-19 patients
who meet clinical criteria.
Remdesivir was developed
by Gilead Sciences Inc. and
has been tested in patients
with various diseases, such as
Ebola, Middle East respira-
tory syndrome (MERS) and
severe acute respiratory syn-
drome (SARS). According
to Gilead9s website, <it is not
known if Remdesivir is safe
and effective for the treatment
of COVID-19.=
Preliminary clinical test-
ing by the National Institute
for Allergy and Infectious
Disease shows that some
patients treated with the drug
experienced faster recoveries.
<The Oregon Health
Authority is committed to
distributing Oregon9s allot-
ment of Remdesivir to
Oregon hospitals for the treat-
ment of patients with severe
COVID-19 in accordance
with the FDA9s Emergency
Use Authorization,= said
Dr. Dana Hargunani, chief
medical officer. <Because of
the experimental nature of
the drug, shared decision-
making between patients and
providers is paramount, and
informed consent must be
obtained prior to its use.=
Preliminary results,
released in April, showed that
individuals with advanced
lung disease who received
the drug recovered 31 per-
cent faster than patients who
did not. The study included
1,063 patients. Differences
in the mortality rate were not
statistically significant. Full
study results have not been
published.
Providence St. Vincent and
Providence Portland medical
centers have been approved
for clinical trials of the drug.
More than 30 patients have
been tested.
<Clinical observation by
providers across the board
has been that overall clinical
improvement and in particu-
lar fever resolution, is sped up
by the drug9s administration.
It has varied by the stage of
the patients9 degree of illness
at time of presentation. Those
findings were confirmed in
the recent preliminary data
release by Gilead last week
4 patients were able to
discharge four to five days
sooner with drug therapy.=
said Dr. Tobias Pusch, an
infectious disease physician
at Providence.
The allotments received
by OHA included enough
Remdesivir for 80 patients
to receive a 10-day treatment
course. As of May 16, this is
enough to treat all currently
hospitalized COVID-19
patients who meet eligibil-
ity criteria. OHA anticipates
additional allotments in the
future, although the amount
and timing are not known.
The drug will be distrib-
uted to hospitals immediately
upon notification of an eli-
gible patient and under speci-
fied terms of the EUA.
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