The country has seen cases of rebounding COVID-19 and health authorities thus warn people not to buy antivirals for their own use, according to the director-general of the Department of Medical Services.
Dr Somsak Akksilp, the director-general, said that over the past two weeks the country confirmed COVID-19 symptoms rebounded with two Thai patients. Earlier, United States President Joe Biden suffered rebounding COVID-19 after taking antiviral Paxlovid, he said.
In some cases, COVID-19 rebounded 5-7 or 10-14 days after full recovery and the Thai cases were 60 years old and over, Dr Somsak said.
Officials had not concluded what caused COVID-19 to rebound. It could result from dead virus or false results from antigen tests, he said.
Regarding reports of people buying antivirals from neighboring countries, Dr Somsakk said the administration of antivirals including monulpiravir and Paxlovid must be subject to doctors’ judgement. People must not buy them for their own use because the medications were under control and must be used only for cases of emergency. They had been used for only one year and officials did not have a conclusion on their side effects, Dr Somsak said.
Besides, he doubted buyers could prove that the medicine they received were real medications.
Dr Somsak insisted that the country did not lack antivirals but their use must be rational. (TNA)
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