The 4,319 health workers in Ciego de Ávila began receiving doses of Nasalferon (nasal version of Interferon alpha 2-b) as a preventive measure to stop the transmission of COVID-19.
Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus in that province in the last 15 days, the Cuban government sent a group of experts led by the national director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Ileana Morales, to help control the outbreak, the newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported.
“In the world, along with the elderly, health personnel have been one of the most affected by the pandemic and where high numbers of deaths have been registered,” Morales said, quoted by the source.
She stressed that in Cuba it is “our moral obligation” to take all possible actions to protect their lives.
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Nasalferon―considered one of the leading products of the Cuban biopharmaceutical industry―has demonstrated its effectiveness against the coronavirus, by raising the immune system in the more than 20,000 Cubans who have received it, said Dr. Hugo Nodarse, a researcher at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
“Its preventive effect has a long-term projection. It does not have very big adverse side effects, perhaps some discomfort, and it is not a drug that will be tested in Ciego de Ávila, rather, its effectiveness has already been recorded for more than 40 years,” explained the specialist.
For his part, the rector of the University of Medical Sciences of the central Cuban province, Ángel Enrique Batista, stressed that the application of the antiviral seeks greater prevention and more effectiveness in the protocols and treatment schemes.
Batista, who is at the forefront of this therapeutic mission, pointed out that the use of the drug through the nasal route has the advantage of going directly to the place where the largest number of virus colonies are concentrated, so it quickly modifies their reproduction, while avoiding undesirable effects, reported the Agencia Cubana de Noticias news agency.
Coronavirus: municipio Ciego de Ávila vuelve a fase de transmisión autóctona
The academic pointed out that the administration of one drop in each nostril every 12 hours, for five days, seeks to strengthen people’s immune system so they can face the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to the source.
As part of the intervention in Ciego de Ávila, Biomodulin T will be applied to more than 9,000 older adults; in addition to the Hebertrans blood product, or Transfer Factor, to another 20,000 people residing in risk areas, including 950 children with underlying diseases that can induce immunodeficiency.
