Summary of COVID-19 interferon-α studies
50 patient interferon-α for hantavirus early treatment RCT: 32% worse recovery (p<0.0001).
RCT 50 hospitalized patients with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) showing no significant benefit with recombinant alpha-2 interferon treatment. Mortality was identical in both groups (16% each, 4 deaths per group). The interferon group showed significantly fewer serious bleeding manifestations (10 vs. 17 patients) and less severe proteinuria, but no significant differences in hypotension, oliguria, polyuria, uremia, or thrombocytopenia. Authors hypothesize that the lack of significant therapeutic effect may be because all patients already had high antibody levels on admission, suggesting that treatment may have been too late. They suggest earlier treatment or different dosing might show greater effectiveness.
Apr 1987, J. Infectious Diseases, https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/infdis/155.5.1047, https://c19p.org/gui