Doctors say Covid treatment ‘no substitute’ for vaccination, as Drysdale grandma reveals her battle

A Geelong grandma has revealed Barwon Health’s life-saving efforts to provide her a special Covid treatment administered through an IV. Now it’s being rolled out across the region, but doctors are warning it is no substitute for vaccination.

A treatment administered through an IV is being used to keep Geelong Covid patients out of hospital, but doctors are warning it is no substitute for vaccination.

Barwon Health infectious diseases physician Dr Caroline Bartolo said so far in the region, about 50 patients had been given sotrovimab, and just one of those had then wound up in hospital due to Covid.

The sotrovimab treatment requires a single dose to be administered through an IV.

It proved 85 per cent effective in reducing hospitalisations in clinical trials.

Dr Bartolo said to be eligible for the treatment, patients had to be not fully vaccinated and have risk factors for severe infection, or be immunocompromised and vaccinated.

Risk factors could include being elderly, obese, or having certain health conditions.

“You have to give it within five days of symptoms,” Dr Bartolo said.

Dr Bartolo said the drug was not given to people under 12, as it was not approved for that age group.

She warned sotrovimab is not a substitute for vaccination.

“All patients who receive the drug are still advised to get the vaccine,” she said.

Drysdale grandmother Sheila Lunn, 74, was only partially vaccinated when she tested positive for Covid last month.

74 year old Sheila Lunn recently recovered from Covid, and took Sotrovimab – a drug given through an IV Barwon Health. Picture: Mike Dugdale

Mrs Lunn, who lives alone after her husband died six years ago, had received one dose of Moderna.

“I didn’t want the AstraZeneca,” she said.

“Having said that, I don’t know how I would have felt if I had been seriously ill.”

She believes she caught Covid from a person who works with a food delivery service where she volunteers.

Within days of testing positive she had been administered sotrovimab.

“I tested positive and then somebody rang me from the hospital and said they’ve got this drug,” Mrs Lunn said.

Mrs Lunn drove to Geelong hospital and was told to stay in the car.

Two staff members came out, dressed in PPE, and she was escorted into Geelong hospital with passers-by prevented from coming near her.

Mrs Lunn was taken to an area where she was isolated, and received the sotrovimab.

She praised Barwon Health, who sent her a thermometer and an oxygen monitoring device as part of their remote patient monitoring program.

“They rang me each day twice a day … they were very supportive,” she said.

“I’m quite convinced the sotrovimab stopped me from getting seriously ill.”

She had no side effects after the infusion, but still experienced Covid symptoms.

“I got extremely tired, and I did feel completely choked up,” she said.

“My head was throbbing.”

Mrs Lunn also had night sweats and lost her sense of smell.

And for a fortnight after she was cleared and deemed an inactive case, she was still tired and did not have her sense of smell.

She has now recovered.

But Mrs Lunn believes her experience with Covid could have been much more severe without sotrovimab.

“I may not have survived,” Mrs Lunn said.

“If you’ve got any symptoms, get tested.”

Originally published as Doctors say Covid treatment ‘no substitute’ for vaccination, as Drysdale grandma reveals her battle