Observational studyInfection2023
The impact of early therapies for COVID-19 on death, hospitalization and persisting symptoms: a retrospective study.
Observational study in Infection, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oral Manifestations in the Post COVID-19 Condition: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.Reviews in medical virology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Persistence of symptoms in long-COVID: follow-up trajectories of 30 symptoms in 755 patients from a national multicenter study from Italy.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Long COVID: A Systematic Review of Preventive Strategies.Infectious disease reports · 2025Review
- Incidence and predictors of clinical failure after early treatment for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in high-risk individuals: A multicentric cohort study.Journal of internal medicine · 2025Article
- Joint analysis of time-varying effect of vaccine and antiviral drug for preventing severe complications and mortality.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Real-world experience with therapies for SARS-CoV-2: Lessons from the Italian COVID-19 studies.Le infezioni in medicina · 2025Review
- Administration of antivirals, IL-6 inhibitors, monoclonal neutralizing antibodies and systemic corticosteroids in acute SARS-CoV-2 infection do not reduce the subsequent burden of Long-COVID symptoms.Le infezioni in medicina · 2025Article
- Azvudine efficacy in reducing mortality in COVID-19 patients.European journal of medical research · 2024Article
- Pharmacotherapy from Pre-COVID to Post-COVID: Longitudinal Trends and Predictive Indicators for Long COVID Symptoms.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Expert Consensus on the Clinical Application of Oral Small-molecule Antiviral Drugs Against COVID-19.Infectious diseases & immunity · 2024Article
- COVID-19 therapeutics.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Emerging small-molecule antiviral agents in long COVID prevention.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Review
- Review
- Effectiveness of Antiviral Therapy on Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeOral antivirals (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and molnupiravir), intravenous short treatment of remdesivir and anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been used for early COVID-19 treatments in high risk of disease progression patients. The term long COVID has been used to refer to a range of new, returning, or ongoing symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Little is known about the impact of such therapies on long COVID.
methodsThis is a retrospective observational study, including all outpatients evaluated from April 2021 to March 2022 in Brescia, Lombardy, northern Italy. Patients were stratified in three groups: (a) treated with mAbs, (b) treated with antivirals drugs and (c) controls (patients eligible for a or b who refused treatment). Data were collected at baseline and at month 1 and 3 (data on self-reported symptoms were collected using a telephone-administered questionnaire). We assessed early COVID-19 therapies effectiveness in preventing hospitalization, death at 1 or 3 months and persisting symptoms at 3 months after the onset of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
resultsA total of 649 patients were included in the study, of which 242 (37.3%) were treated with mAbs, 197 (30.3%) with antiviral drugs and 210 (32.4%) were not treated. Patients most frequently reported cerebro-cardiovascular diseases (36.7%) followed by obesity (22%). Overall, 29 patients (4.5%) died or were hospitalized at 1 or 3-month follow-up. Death or hospitalization was positively associated with older ages, with a significant linear trend (OR 3.05; 95% CI 1.16-8.06, for patients aged 80 or more years compared to those aged less than 65). Data on long COVID at 3 months were available for 323 (49.8%) patients. A positive association emerged for females compared to men, with an OR of 2.14 (95% CI 1.30-3.53) for any symptoms. Conversely, inverse associations were found for treatment groups as compared to the control one, with significant estimates among patients treated with antiviral drugs for any symptoms (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.21-0.87) and patients treated with mAbs for any neuro-behavioral symptoms (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.25-0.92).
conclusionsWe report beneficial effect of early use of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antivirals and mAbs on long COVID.
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