This photo taken on July 31, 2022 shows a health worker taking a swab sample from a woman to be tested for Covid-19 at a swab collection site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province. A study published online on Tuesday reported that about a third of those infected with Covid will see a rebound in their symptoms, regardless of whether they have been treated with an antiviral.
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A study published online on Tuesday reported that about a third of those infected with Covid will see a rebound in their symptoms, regardless of whether they have been treated with an antiviral.
The preprint study — meaning it was not published in a peer-reviewed journal — found that 27% of people with Covid saw a rebound in their symptoms after initially improving.
Study co-author Dr. Davey Smith, MD, chair of the division of infectious diseases and global public health at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. However, Smith noted that 27% was higher than he expected based on anecdotal evidence.
The study also found that 12% of people with Covid had a “viral rebound,” meaning they tested positive again several days after they tested negative. This was documented among people who took Paxlovid and referred to as Paxlovid rebound, but the study found that viral rebound occurred regardless of whether the person took the antiviral treatment.
A person with Covid can see symptoms return after they initially disappear, Smith said, and those symptoms may be worse or not as bad as the first episode. “It’s just a variation of the natural course of infection.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recognized the possibility of symptoms recurring in untreated COVID patients. When the agency issued a health alert in May informing clinicians of baxlovid rebounds, it also said that “a short return of symptoms may be part of the natural history of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) in some people, regardless of treatment.” Using Paxlovid and regardless of vaccination status.”
The phenomenon of the appearance of symptoms of morning and pallor is not limited to Covid.
Dr. said. Paul Sacks, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “There are good days and bad days, and then eventually it gets better.”
Baxlovid rebounds, in particular, have received a lot of attention in recent weeks, with both President Joe Biden and his chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci tested positive several days after he took the antiviral.
In Pfizer’s clinical trial of the drug, 1% to 2% of people who took Paxlovid tested positive for coronavirus after testing negative. In a fact sheet for doctors who prescribe baxlovid, the drug manufacturer notes that this also occurs at similar rates among the placebo group.
But even if a person takes baxlovid, it can still be difficult to determine if their reflux is caused by the drug.
“It could be that what would have happened without Baxlovid is that they would still have had the virus in these later days, but they hadn’t had the interfering negative test … That might just be a minor disturbance in the natural history of the disease they had,” Sachs said.
Smith agreed: “Symptoms fluctuate, viral antigen in the nose fluctuates, fluctuating with or without baxiloid.”
Dr. Regardless of rebound symptoms, the message is clear: Baxlovid works, said Albert Ko, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health.
“Baxlovid does what it’s supposed to do: prevent us from getting life-threatening Covid,” Coe said. “Although these rebounds do occur, they prevent dangerous outcomes.”