Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 16, 2024 1:10:36 GMT
For Want of a Covid Viral Load Test - Published Aug 13, 2024
Our Nation will be lost. News has come in from two preprint papers that covid attacks the immune system faster and harder than HIV. From the paper AIDS and Covid-19 are two diseases separated by a common lymphocytopenia is this figure showing that while HIV and covid hit the CD4 cells (helper T cells) equally hard, covid hits the CD8 cells (killer T cells) far harder.
The results from HIV-infected patients are the grey boxes on the left, those from the covid-infected are on the right. The CD8 cell levels in the covid-infected are about one tenth that of the HIV-infected. Another preprint came up with similar results for CD4 and CD8 cell levels compared to healthy controls in green:
Once again, both viruses have much the same effect on CD4 cells but covid gives CD8 cells a much bigger whacking than HIV does.
We have known for years that covid attacks the immune system and our best guess was that the result will be much like HIV. These preprints tell us that covid is different and likely worse. In short, covid causes hyperactivation of many T cells which prematurely ages them and causes organ damage. The T cells then become exhausted and lose the battle against the virus, which in turn allows other opportunistic infections to take hold.
The solution for covid will be the same solution that was developed for HIV: a cocktail of antivirals taken daily using some of the same molecules. The molecules for preventing covid infection will be the same as those for suppressing it. As with HIV, elimination of the virus hiding in immunoprotected tissues isn’t expected. Blood tests might show no viral load but the disease will come back when treatment is interrupted.
This need not be expensive. HIV drugs such as tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine are out of patent and available in India for $0.60 per day of treatment. They need not cost more than that in Australia. Anecdotally, TDF and the plant naphthoquinone shikonin have reversed falling CD4 levels in covid. The evidence is anecdotal because almost nothing has been done in terms of in vitro work and clinical trials on molecules for treating covid. Not that this work would take long or cost a lot. A number of molecules with minimal side effects have good anti-covid efficacy in terms of their IC50 which is the concentration which will kill half the covid virions in vitro. A cocktail drug might include most of these molecules in this table of IC50 results against covid and its main proteins:
And time is of the essence. While the covid virions are attacking your immune system, they are also attacking cells in your brain, causing cognitive decline, and attacking the microtubules in your kidneys with the effect of reducing your eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate). eGFR is an estimate of your kidneys’ ability to clear toxic molecules from your blood. You have to start antiviral treatment while your kidneys can take the strain. And if your cognitive decline means that you start antiviral treatment too late, the result is that you will have missed the window of opportunity to stay alive.
Right at the moment it seems that there a lot of people who don’t know that they have a persistent covid infection. If they have an inkling of that, the best they can do is get their lymphocyte panel done — but that is a lagging indicator. HIV has had a viral load test available since 1999 that will give a result in copies per ml. The website iMedical sells a HIV viral load test for $178. At least a dozen research viral load tests for covid have been developed. There is no scientific or commercial reason that would preclude a covid viral load test from being available. The holdup must be political.
A covid viral load test would enable people to test themselves for covid, years before they would become physically sick as a result of covid, and help to avoid getting sick as well as preserving their remaining brain and kidney function. Also it need not cost as much as HIV. For example, iMedical will see you a test for dengue fever for $33.
At less than $1 per day for the antiviral treatment and a once per year viral load test, suppressing covid in Australia might cost $400 per annum per individual Australian. For 25 million Australians that comes to $10 billion per annum which is less than a quarter of what the NDIS costs.
David Archibald is the author of The Anticancer Garden in Australia.
Our Nation will be lost. News has come in from two preprint papers that covid attacks the immune system faster and harder than HIV. From the paper AIDS and Covid-19 are two diseases separated by a common lymphocytopenia is this figure showing that while HIV and covid hit the CD4 cells (helper T cells) equally hard, covid hits the CD8 cells (killer T cells) far harder.
The results from HIV-infected patients are the grey boxes on the left, those from the covid-infected are on the right. The CD8 cell levels in the covid-infected are about one tenth that of the HIV-infected. Another preprint came up with similar results for CD4 and CD8 cell levels compared to healthy controls in green:
Once again, both viruses have much the same effect on CD4 cells but covid gives CD8 cells a much bigger whacking than HIV does.
We have known for years that covid attacks the immune system and our best guess was that the result will be much like HIV. These preprints tell us that covid is different and likely worse. In short, covid causes hyperactivation of many T cells which prematurely ages them and causes organ damage. The T cells then become exhausted and lose the battle against the virus, which in turn allows other opportunistic infections to take hold.
The solution for covid will be the same solution that was developed for HIV: a cocktail of antivirals taken daily using some of the same molecules. The molecules for preventing covid infection will be the same as those for suppressing it. As with HIV, elimination of the virus hiding in immunoprotected tissues isn’t expected. Blood tests might show no viral load but the disease will come back when treatment is interrupted.
This need not be expensive. HIV drugs such as tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine are out of patent and available in India for $0.60 per day of treatment. They need not cost more than that in Australia. Anecdotally, TDF and the plant naphthoquinone shikonin have reversed falling CD4 levels in covid. The evidence is anecdotal because almost nothing has been done in terms of in vitro work and clinical trials on molecules for treating covid. Not that this work would take long or cost a lot. A number of molecules with minimal side effects have good anti-covid efficacy in terms of their IC50 which is the concentration which will kill half the covid virions in vitro. A cocktail drug might include most of these molecules in this table of IC50 results against covid and its main proteins:
And time is of the essence. While the covid virions are attacking your immune system, they are also attacking cells in your brain, causing cognitive decline, and attacking the microtubules in your kidneys with the effect of reducing your eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate). eGFR is an estimate of your kidneys’ ability to clear toxic molecules from your blood. You have to start antiviral treatment while your kidneys can take the strain. And if your cognitive decline means that you start antiviral treatment too late, the result is that you will have missed the window of opportunity to stay alive.
Right at the moment it seems that there a lot of people who don’t know that they have a persistent covid infection. If they have an inkling of that, the best they can do is get their lymphocyte panel done — but that is a lagging indicator. HIV has had a viral load test available since 1999 that will give a result in copies per ml. The website iMedical sells a HIV viral load test for $178. At least a dozen research viral load tests for covid have been developed. There is no scientific or commercial reason that would preclude a covid viral load test from being available. The holdup must be political.
A covid viral load test would enable people to test themselves for covid, years before they would become physically sick as a result of covid, and help to avoid getting sick as well as preserving their remaining brain and kidney function. Also it need not cost as much as HIV. For example, iMedical will see you a test for dengue fever for $33.
At less than $1 per day for the antiviral treatment and a once per year viral load test, suppressing covid in Australia might cost $400 per annum per individual Australian. For 25 million Australians that comes to $10 billion per annum which is less than a quarter of what the NDIS costs.
David Archibald is the author of The Anticancer Garden in Australia.