Combined Nasal, Oropharyngeal Povidone Iodine Plus Glycyrrhizic Acid Sprays, Accelerate Clinical and Laboratory Recovery and Reduces Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

{ 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2022, 4, 20]], 'date-time': '2022-04-20T11:40:37Z', 'timestamp': 1650454837980}, 'reference-count': 29, 'publisher': 'Frontiers Media SA', 'license': [ { 'start': { 'date-parts': [[2022, 4, 19]], 'date-time': '2022-04-19T00:00:00Z', 'timestamp': 1650326400000}, 'content-version': 'vor', 'delay-in-days': 0, 'URL': 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'}], 'content-domain': {'domain': ['frontiersin.org'], 'crossmark-restriction': True}, 'abstract': '<jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic is still posing challenging health and economic problems. ' 'Effective broad-spectrum antiviral therapy is urgently needed for the control of early ' 'SARS-CoV-2 infection to limit its spread and mutations. In this randomized placebo-controlled ' 'clinical study, we tested the effects of intranasal and oropharyngeal delivery of a compound ' 'of povidone-iodine 0.5% and glycyrrhizic acid 2.5 mg/ml on the laboratory (PCR) and clinical ' 'recovery from SARS-CoV-2 patients and their household contacts. 353 patients suspected of ' 'having COVID-19 infection were screened by chest CT and nasopharyngeal swab tests (PCR). 200 ' 'patients were randomly allocated to two equal groups: treatment and placebo groups. Treatment ' 'accelerated the recovery of PCR on days 4, 7, and 10, as evidenced by PCR-positive patients ' '(70, vs. 99%, 20 vs. 65%, 1 vs. 10%) in both the treated and placebo groups, respectively. ' 'Treatment enhanced the early recovery of symptoms [day 7.6 ± 2 (CI 7:8.3) vs. 8.9 ± 2 (CI ' '8.3:9.6)]. Treatment promoted early recovery of anosmia and ageusia [5.6 ± 1 (CI, 4.8:6.4) ' 'vs. 11 ± 3 days, (CI, 10.8:12)] in both the treated and control groups ' '(<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.0001). There was a notable reduction in transmission ' 'of the virus among the household close contacts in the treatment group (4%) vs. 76% in the ' 'placebo group. Combined PVI-GA nasal and oropharyngeal spray accelerates both laboratory and ' 'clinical recovery of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in the early phases of the disease and ' 'reduces the household spread of the virus; thus, it may play an important role in controlling ' 'coronavirus outbreaks.</jats:p><jats:sec><jats:title>Clinical Trial ' 'Registration</jats:title><jats:p><jats:ext-link>https://pactr.samrc.ac.za</jats:ext-link>, ' 'PACTR202101875903773.</jats:p></jats:sec>', 'DOI': '10.3389/fmed.2022.863917', 'type': 'journal-article', 'created': {'date-parts': [[2022, 4, 19]], 'date-time': '2022-04-19T15:01:29Z', 'timestamp': 1650380489000}, 'update-policy': 'http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/crossmark-policy', 'source': 'Crossref', 'is-referenced-by-count': 0, 'title': 'Combined Nasal, Oropharyngeal Povidone Iodine Plus Glycyrrhizic Acid Sprays, Accelerate Clinical ' 'and Laboratory Recovery and Reduces Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A Randomized ' 'Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial', 'prefix': '10.3389', 'volume': '9', 'author': [ {'given': 'Hazem E.', 'family': 'Elsersy', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Magdy A. H.', 'family': 'Zahran', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Abd-Elazeem', 'family': 'Elbakry', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Mohamed', 'family': 'Abd-Elwahab', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Mohamed Milegy', 'family': 'Ahmed', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Mohamed Salah', 'family': 'Elgandy', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Eman H. M.', 'family': 'Mohammed', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Nourhan M.', 'family': 'Elewa', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}], 'member': '1965', 'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2022, 4, 19]]}, 'reference': [ { 'key': 'B1', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'first-page': '1824', 'DOI': '10.1001/jama.2020.6019', 'article-title': 'Pharmacologic treatments for Coronavirus disease. 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