A panel of U.S. physicians, statisticians and other experts has developed treatment guidelines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced.
These guidelines, intended for healthcare providers, are based on published and preliminary data and the clinical expertise of the panelists, many of whom are frontline clinicians caring for patients during the rapidly evolving pandemic, the NIH said.
The NIH posted the guidelines and plans to update them often as new data are published in peer-reviewed scientific literature or other authoritative sources.
The guidelines include information on two broad categories of therapies currently in use by healthcare providers for COVID-19: antivirals, which may target the coronavirus directly, and host modifiers and immune-based therapies, which may influence the immune response to the virus or target the virus. The guidelines include the panel’s recommendations, as well as background information about these two categories of therapies.
Another section of the guidelines addresses the needs of the most critically ill patients, including infection control procedures, hemodynamic and ventilatory support, and drug therapy.
The guidelines also include recommendations concerning the use of concomitant medications. These include statins; corticosteroids; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; and certain drugs used to control hypertension, known as ACE inhibitors and ARBs.
