ABILENE, TX — According to Hendrick Health VP, Susan Greenwood, the clinics provide COVID-19 therapy or “infusions” of the COVID-19 antibody directly into the body which helps to fight the virus early on.
“The goal being to give the high-risk patients that are high risk to develop a more severe COVID-19 or at risk of hospitalization- put antibody into the body to help fight it from becoming more severe or that patient being or that patient having to be hospitalized,” said Greenwood.
Greenwood says the state is currently providing the antibody to both locations on a regular basis and the drug itself is free, but there is an admin fee that is billed to insurance. Greenwood says it’s important to note, Hendrick is given this antibody under emergency use authorization. This means the FDA hasn’t cleared this as a treatment for COVID-19 but they have allowed its use under emergency authorization in specific situations.
According to Greenwood, the infusion is a one time dose and the patient can expect to be at the clinic for up to 3 hours. There are clear-cut criteria of when they can administer the infusions, and the treatment is still being studied to determine its effectiveness.
“They have to be very early in their disease and they have to be very early in their disease, but they have to have a positive COVID-19 test, mild symptoms but be within the first 10 days of the onset of those symptoms. The earlier the better,” said Greenwood.
Greenwood says this is not approved for patients who require hospitalization, and that you should speak to your health care provider to see if you meet the criteria or the infusions.
