Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Jan 12, 2023; 11(1): 1-4
Published online Jan 12, 2023. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v11.i1.1
Opinion on double strategy to fight against COVID-19: Vaccination and home treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Serafino Fazio, Flora Affuso
Serafino Fazio, Department of Internal Medicine, Federico II University of Naples, Napoli 80100, Italy
Flora Affuso, Independent Researcher, Home, Gallipoli 73014, Lecce, Italy
Author contributions: Affuso F, and Fazio S contributed equally to this work; both authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Flora Affuso and Serafino Fazio have no competing conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Serafino Fazio, MD, retired Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Federico II university of Naples, via Sergio Pansini 5, Napoli 80100, Italy. fazio0502@gmail.com
Received: October 24, 2022
Peer-review started: October 24, 2022
First decision: November 2, 2022
Revised: November 7, 2022
Accepted: December 23, 2022
Article in press: December 23, 2022
Published online: January 12, 2023
Processing time: 78 Days and 13.6 Hours
Abstract

The goals of global vaccination are to control, eliminate, or eradicate infectious diseases in a sustainable way that strengthens public health systems. Although the use of vaccines is essential for the control of epidemics, the vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) proved to be inadequate to end the pandemic and thus are considered incomplete. These vaccines failed to prevent infection, so their primary purpose has been shifted to prevent severe disease and reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Therefore, we believe that all the strategies available to reduce transmission, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 will be put in place. It is reported that uncontrolled inflammation and thrombosis are the principal mechanisms for aggravation and death in patients with COVID-19. Unlike corticosteroids that should not be administered at the beginning of the symptoms for their immunosuppressive action, which could worsen the evolution of the disease, the usefulness of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the early at-home treatment of the disease is becoming evident.

Keywords: Vaccination; Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; COVID-19; Early Treatment; Indomethacin; Hospitalizations

Core Tip: The goals of global vaccination are to control, eliminate, or eradicate infectious diseases in a sustainable way that strengthens public health systems. Although the use of vaccines is essential for the control of epidemics, the vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) proved to be inadequate to end the pandemic and thus are considered incomplete. These vaccines failed to prevent infection, so their primary purpose now has been shifted to prevent severe disease and reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Therefore, we believe that all the strategies available to reduce transmission, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 will be put in place. In this regard, many observational studies have constantly shown beneficial effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in patients with low to moderate degree of COVID-19, in particular when administered within the first 72 h of symptom onset. Randomized controlled studies with NSAIDs should be carried out as soon as possible to confirm these results.