Jamaica utilizing ‘empiric treatment’ on COVID-19 patients

Both are in the testing phase of long trial runs in the US, India and China that is estimated to last approximately 18 months before any final approval for a vaccine is given.

Meanwhile, countries like Jamaica, with over 500 confirmed cases and nine recorded deaths, have to rely on proven best practices use to combat different influenza strains.

With no approved drug yet, chief medical officer (CMO) in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie noted: “The treatment of the patient is going to be dependent on the symptoms they present with.”

Dr Bisasor-McKenzie was speaking on Wednesday at a digital media briefing.

Responding to a question posed by Old Harbour News regarding what specific drug or set of medications are being administered to COVID-19 patients in state care, the country’s CMO said an assessment is done on a case by case basis in the absence of a vaccine.

“There are some routine empiric kind of treatment that we would give… for example: the treatment of influenza-like symptoms until we have an influenza test that is negative. So we may use specific medication for that,” she said.

“We may also use certain empiric antibiotics where we think that there is the possibility of secondary bacterial infection.”

So far all nine COVID-19 deaths in Jamaica are persons with comorbidities. This means doctors treating patients with underlining health problems like diabetes, heart diseases or cancer must first stabilize those issues in order to strengthen the immune system to fight the coronavirus.

With scientists still learning about the coronavirus doctors must make a ‘clinical educated guess’ or what is referred to in the medical field as empiric treatment.

While this is the reality in most hospitals around the world, Dr Bisasor-McKenzie said there is adequate supply of medication in Jamaica.

“Those medications are in fact available in country, we do not have any shortages of these medications, and so far in the management of these cases we do not have any shortages and we continue to have supply within our storage area,” she said.