Favipiravir Use in Kidney Transplant Recipients with Covid 19: A Single
Center Experience
Abstract
Aim: Kidney transplant patients are amongst the high-risk groups for
severe Covid 19. To date, no specific antiviral agent has been found
uniformly effective against severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Favipiravir, the recommended drug by The
Turkish Ministry of Health, was uniformly supplied to all patients
diagnosed to have COVID 19 with a positive nasopharyngeal swap PCR test.
The aim of our study was to retrospectively compare our kidney
transplant recipients who developed COVID-19 infection started on
Favipiravir to those who did not use Favipiravir for the clinical course
of the disease with a special emphasis on the occurrence of side
effects/adverse events. Methods: Thirty-seven consecutive KT recipients
with a median age of 46 years and of whom 62.2% were women; 8 deceased
/29 living related donor, with a 8.0 (5.5-12.5) years median duration of
transplantation were included in the study. Results: Twenty-six (70.3%)
patients received Favipiravir, 11(29.7%) did not. There was no
statistical significance in baseline demographic, clinical and
laboratory findings between the groups except that the Favipiravir group
was older and had a higher requirement of oxygen treatment. There was no
statistically significant difference in the course and outcome of
COVID-19 infection, in the occurrence of side effects/adverse events
related to Favipiravir between the two groups. Laboratory data at
baseline, day7 and 30 were also comparable between the groups.
Conclusion: Although the efficacy of Favipiravir in the treatment of
COVID-19 infection is currently controversial, Favipiravir can safely be
used in kidney transplant patients.