COVID (May 2024)

COVID-19 Therapeutics Use by Social Deprivation Index in England, July 2020–April 2023

  • Angela Falola,
  • Hanna Squire,
  • Sabine Bou-Antoun,
  • Alessandra Løchen,
  • Colin S. Brown,
  • Alicia Demirjian

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/covid4050043
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 5
pp. 645 – 651

Abstract

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Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected certain demographics in England, exacerbating existing health disparities. Effective therapeutics are a critical line of defence against COVID-19, particularly for patients at elevated risk for severe disease. Surveillance systems were established to monitor the usage of COVID-19 therapeutics in hospital and community settings and to inform stewardship. Three antiviral therapies—nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid®), remdesivir (Veklury®), and molnupiravir (Lagevrio®)—and two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (nMAbs)—sotrovimab (Xevudy®) and casirivimab with imdevimab (Ronapreve®)—were in use in England between July 2020 and April 2023. This paper aims to illuminate trends in the utilisation of COVID-19 therapeutics treatment in both hospital and community settings, stratified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in England. Chapter 3 of the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) Report 2022 to 2023 also discusses the epidemiological surveillance of these five directly acting antiviral COVID-19 therapeutics’ use in England between 2022 and 2023.

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