Investigational use of ribavirin in the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Singapore, 2003

Summary Objective  Ribavirin is a broad spectrum nucleoside analogue efficacious in the treatment of several viral infections. In the recent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, ribavirin was used in various countries against this novel coronavirus. We conducted a retrospective analysi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tropical medicine & international health 2004-08, Vol.9 (8), p.923-927
Main Authors: Leong, Hoe‐Nam, Ang, Brenda, Earnest, Arul, Teoh, Cindy, Xu, Wei, Leo, Yee‐Sin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use
Biological and medical sciences
Female
General aspects
Hospital Mortality
Human infectious diseases. Experimental studies and models
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
mortality
Original
Proportional Hazards Models
Retrospective Studies
ribavirin
Ribavirin - therapeutic use
SARS coronavirus
severe acute respiratory syndrome
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - drug therapy
Singapore
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Summary Objective  Ribavirin is a broad spectrum nucleoside analogue efficacious in the treatment of several viral infections. In the recent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, ribavirin was used in various countries against this novel coronavirus. We conducted a retrospective analysis to assess the efficacy of ribavirin in the treatment of SARS in Singapore. Methods  A total of 229 cases were analysed. Ninety‐seven (42.4%) patients received ribavirin at a mean of 6.4 days of illness. Clinical and laboratory parameters taken at the start of ribavirin treatment were compared with day 5, 6 or 7 parameters of those patients not on treatment. The two groups were compared using Fisher's exact test and Student's t‐test. Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox regression model with death as the outcome of interest. Results  The treatment group had younger women with more symptoms of myalgia (P 
ISSN:1360-2276
1365-3156
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-3156.2004.01281.x