Paralympian Chris Daw felt clobbered by COVID-19 symptoms when he was infected in January but hours after an infusion treatment at Royal Jubilee Hospital he was “fantastic.”
“I went from feeling like I had the flu with a massive headache, lower back pain, a clogged ear and being super tired — sleeping 20 hours the first day — to feeling 90 per cent myself within three hours of the treatment,” said Daw, who was double vaccinated.
“Three or four hours later that congestion was gone, my breathing was better, I had an appetite again — I could taste my food, it was fantastic,” said Daw. The only remaining symptom is his clogged ear.
Daw, 52, said he is the only 91原创 Paralympian in history to represent Canada in multiple Paralympics and an Olympics, winning gold in curling. His athleticism aside though, he has a rare form of sleep apnea requiring him to be on a breathing machine at night and has recently undergone gallbladder surgery.
Just before becoming sick in late January Daw received notification it was time for his third (booster) dose but with a hectic work schedule between himself and his wife, he now regrets putting it off. “Don’t say next week; don’t put if off,” he warned.
When Daw came down with COVID symptoms on Jan. 30, a day after his wife, he completed a rapid test and followed that positive result with a PCR test.
Island Health contacted Daw via email as a possible candidate for the intravenous COVID drug therapy Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody administered by intravenous infusion.
Daw went to Royal Jubilee Hospital, one of four COVID-19 therapeutic clinics on the Island including in Nanaimo, Campbell River and West Coast General Hospital.
The province recently announced the arrival of two new drug therapies to treat COVID-19, the other being Paxlovid which is an oral antiviral pill prescribed by a physician and can be taken at home. Manufacturer Pfizer says testing of the drug showed an 89 per cent reduction in risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization.
Allergic and drug reactions to Sotrovimab are considered rare. While the Paxlovid pill is easier to administer than an intravenous infusion, the pill has many possible adverse reactions with other drugs, so a doctor or pharmacist must first do a thorough drug history on a patient. As well, a person with end-stage renal disease or on dialysis, for example, could not take Paxlovid.
COVID-19 therapeutics are recommended for people who are more likely to develop serious illness from COVID-19 such as those who are moderately or severely immuno-compromised, unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, and over age 60 and Indigenous or with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Testing needs to be done by the third day of symptoms because treatment needs to be administered within five to seven days of symptom onset — ideally five days for Paxlovid and seven days for Sotrovimab.
Island Health infectious disease specialist Dr. Eric Partlow said vaccination is the first and best defence against COVID but for people who are infected the treatments offer an 80 to 90 per cent risk reduction for being hospitalized.
It is not yet known how well the drugs will work against the latest Omicron strains BA.2. It does not appear there will be a problem with Paxlovid though some initial studies suggest “there’s a potential for some efficacy problems” with Sotrovimab and it may be weaker or may not work as well against the new strain,” said Partlow.
Cowichan Valley family physician Dr. Kelsey Kozoriz, outpatient therapeutic clinic medical lead, said her program has six family doctors and two infectious disease physicians supporting four COVID-19 treatment infusion sites across the Island.
The clinics have already delivered just over 200 infusions and more sites are expected to open, she said. The infusion takes about one hour to deliver and another hour for monitoring.
The Health Ministry advises people who have COVID-19 symptoms and are either moderately or severely immunocompromised to seek testing and if positive for COVID go to the province’s at covidtreatments.gov.bc.ca or phone Service B.C. at 1-888-COVID19 (1-888-268-4319) to determine if they might benefit from one of the new treatments.
Daw said he felt like an experimental hamster as he took a “leap of faith” and accepted the drug therapy and is now grateful he was able to recover so quickly without the risk of ending up in hospital. “I literally recovered within 24 hours with the IV,” said Daw.
