An evaluation of mass #azithromycin distribution on respiratory #virome suggests children have ⬇️non-SARS coronavirus viral load in communities receiving azithromycin compared to placebo. These findings are intriguing, with some important considerations.
academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…
academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…
This is a non-prespecified analysis from the #MORDOR study. These data pre-date COVID19 emergence by years. Most importantly, this paper does not say anything about whether azithromycin does or does not work for COVID19.
Mechanism unclear (and this study is not designed to address that). Azithromycin has anti-inflammatory effects, so could be related to that. Could be some secondary effect of reducing bacterial effect, or an off-target effect on viral replication. Also could be chance.
Mass azithromycin distribution has been shown to reduce all-cause child mortality in high mortality settings, presumably via a reduction in infectious causes of mortality.
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Possibly, alteration in the respiratory virome contributes to this effect. These exploratory results raise an interesting hypothesis about the effect of azithromycin on respiratory viruses that warrant future investigation.
