- Viral respiratory infections are common and generally result in a few days of illness from which most people recover without treatment.
- However, they can lead to severe disease, so most existing treatments aim to prevent existing infections from progressing.
- A new study suggests a way of stopping viral respiratory infections before they have a chance to become severe.
- The study found that a common antibiotic boosts the immune response to both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza in rodents, preventing severe disease and death.
- The researchers propose that the antibiotic, neomycin, could be a cheap, effective way to prevent and treat viral respiratory infections in people.
The COVID-19 pandemic focused attention on viral respiratory infections and how they can be prevented and treated.
With effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — severe disease is less common than it was at the start of the pandemic, but there are still few effective treatments for this and other viral respiratory infections.
Currently, doctors use antivirals to try and prevent progression of these infections, with
Now, a study led by researchers from Yale has found that a cheap, widely available antibiotic might reduce the risk of severe disease from viral respiratory infections.
The study found that
And a small group of healthy people treated with a common nasal ointment containing neomycin — Neosporin — showed a similar immune response.
The study is published in PNAS.
William Schaffner, MD, professor of preventive medicine in the Department of Health Policy, and professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, not involved in the study, commented on the findings for Medical…
Read the full article here
