FRIDAY, Jan. 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Treatment with nirmatrelvir during acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is not associated with a reduced risk for subsequent development of long COVID, according to a study published online Jan. 4 in the Journal of Medical Virology.

Matthew S. Durstenfeld, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues conducted an observational cohort study involving 100,000 participants to examine whether nirmatrelvir treatment during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection reduces the risk for developing long COVID. A total of 4,684 individuals met the eligibility criteria: 21.1 percent were treated and 78.9 percent were untreated. Overall, 353 of 988 treated and 1,258 of 3,696 untreated participants responded to a survey regarding long COVID.

The researchers found that nirmatrelvir treatment was not associated with subsequent symptoms of long COVID at 5.4 ± 1.3 months after infection (odds ratio, 1.15; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.80 to 1.64; P = 0.45). Rebound symptoms or test positivity were not associated with symptoms of long COVID among the 666 treated individuals who answered the rebound questions (odds ratio, 1.34; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.74 to 2.41; P = 0.33).

“Our finding that Paxlovid treatment during acute infection is not associated with lower odds of long COVID surprised us, but it is consistent with two other rigorously conducted studies finding no difference in post-COVID conditions between four and six months after infection,” Durstenfeld said in a statement.

One author disclosed serving as a consultant for AstraZeneca and Gilead Sciences.

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