Let’s talk treatments

Failed: a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir — “No benefit was observed.”

Succeeded? Favipiravir (aka Avigan) “has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment.”

What everyone is looking at: Chloroquine. Studies of the anti-malarial in China seem to show it could work against CoviD-19 because it worked on SARS. It’s also old and cheap*, but it still needs trials before the FDA will approve it even for off-label use.

Good guys: Rising Pharmaceuticals, which makes chloroquine phosphate, had doubled its price in January, but the company said, in the wake of the pandemic, it’s reversing the price hike.

* Like my dad, and like insulin. Take what you will from these facts.

Georgia numbers

287 confirmed cases of CoviD-19. 10 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, per the DPH. That’s 3.48%.

Almost half were people aged 18 to 59.

Wuhan numbers

No new cases for the first time since this started. We look forward to hearing the same from Italy, which seems to be about 10 days ahead of the U.S.

Canceled: AIP Spring Meeting

For obvious reasons, the AIP Spring Meeting (scheduled for April 19) has been canceled.

Postponed: Spring Regional Presidents’ Briefings

And, due to the suspension of the Georgia Assembly, Region Presidents’ Briefings (aka “region meetings”) have been postponed. Keep an eye on GPhA Buzz and your e-mail for further information.

Yes, the Georgia BoP is OK with DIY hand sanitizer

To answer your questions about selling your own compounded hand sanitizer: The Georgia Board of Pharmacy…

…takes the position that compounding of hand sanitizer gel is permitted given that the components are all over-the-counter products. Please be advised labels will need to comply with FDA requirements.

Once again, those FDA requirements are here. The specific recipe is here.

Why sugar kills

It’s not, as you might think, by causing obesity or diabetes. What’s deadly, apparently, is the uric acid byproduct. (How can you mitigate it? Water. Lots of water.)

“[W]e found that dietary sugar intake in humans was associated with worse kidney function and higher purine levels in the blood.”

Double-take

Headlines like this are a reminder that Georgia is also a country: “Georgia Pharmacy Association sends anti-COVID19 shipment to Iran.”

Your heart can go on

Patients who suffer a heart attack might well be served by listening to at least a half hour of music a day. Researchers at the University of Belgrade gave heart attack survivors identical medical treatment, but one group listened to 30 minutes of their favorite music.

After seven years…

The patients with music therapy, on average […] had significantly lower rates of certain heart conditions, including an 18% reduction in the rate of heart failure; 23% lower rate of subsequent heart attack; 20% lower rate of needing coronary artery bypass graft surgery; and 16% lower rate of cardiac death.

Could obesity be contagious?

Why yes, yes it could. Not in the sense of germs, but because by hanging around overweight people, “Higher obesity rates may normalize unhealthy weight in teens.” In other words, while fat-shaming is bad, so is letting yourself think being overweight is good.

“There is both comfort and discomfort in the idea that seeing a lot of obesity among those all around you effectively ‘normalizes’ the appearance of overweight for young people.”

Elsewhere: “Grazie!” edition

Italy has supplied Tennessee with half a million coronavirus test kits.

Elsewhere: “A Continental Thank You” edition

At 8:00 pm on Wednesday, across a locked-down Europe, thousands of people came to their balconies simply to applaud the healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus, like Italian nurse Elena Pagliarini, the photo of whom has gone viral:

 

The science read: The 70% solution

“Why Is 70% IPA a better disinfectant than other concentrations?”

There are several answers, and the site goes into the details. The short version: Because 70% works more slowly than higher concentrations, it kills the bacterial cells rather than triggering a defense mechanism that essentially puts them in stasis.

As one site explains:

100% isopropyl alcohol coagulates the protein instantly creating a protein layer that protects the remaining protein from further coagulation. Due to this [the] organism is not killed but remains in a dormant stage.