Coronavirus Symptoms? WHO Says Avoid Self-Medicating

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization advised that people with COVID-19-like symptoms could stop self-medicating with ibuprofen, after French authorities cautioned that anti-inflammatory medications might exacerbate the virus ' impact.

The warnings over the weekend by French Health Minister Olivier Veran followed a recent study in The Lancet weekly medical journal that hypothesised that an enzyme that is boosted when taking anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen could facilitate and worsen COVID-19 infections.

Asked about the study, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva that the UN health agency’s experts were “looking into this to give further guidance”.

He stressed though that if ibuprofen had been “prescribed by the healthcare professionals, then, of course, that’s up to them”.

His comments came after Veran sent a tweet cautioning that the use of ibuprofen and similar anti-inflammatory drugs could be “an aggravating factor” in COVID-19 infections.

“In the case of fever, take paracetamol,” he wrote.

He emphasized that people who are currently being handled with anti-inflammatory medications can "ask advice from doctor." Paracetamol should be administered solely according to the dosage, because too high a dosage may be very harmful to the liver.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected more than 180,000 people worldwide and killed more than 7,000, causes moderate symptoms in most patients, which may progress to pneumonia and, in some instances, serious disease which may lead to multiple organ failure.

Shortly before the pandemic, the French authorities expressed concern last year over severe "infectious risks" connected with the usage of ibuprofen, which is marketed under different labels such as Nurofen among Advil, and other anti-inflammatory drugs.

Source: AFP