United States: COVID-19 has been known to be a threat for every country around the globe but a recent study has found that every nation had their own way to treat it, which is a quite surprising. The study focused on the different national clinical guidelines against treatment for COVID-19 and it also outlined that the health authorities have mentioned that at least one of the treatment was proven not to work.

Reportedly, the study was conducted by the BMJ Group Health; the researchers and authors – who were into the research – mentioned that the gold standard for the clinical guidelines was the 11th version of the WHO guideline, which was updated in 2022. The NGs of 109 WHO member states were analyzed out of the total 194, as per the authors. It is to be noted that out of the remaining 85 countries, nine (9) did not have any NGs, according to cidrap.umn.edu.

What did the study reveal? 

According to the details shared by the authorities, most of the countries that had easily identifiable guidelines were in Europe, and the percentage of the nations was 69.8 percent. And the region was followed by Africa, at 53.2 percent.

It is to be noted that health authorities and clinicians were asked to categorize the disease severity into three levels, i.e., non-severe, severe, and critical, under the 11th WHO guidelines. Out of the total, 84.4 percent of the nations mentioned the severity of the disease differently, and the remaining 6.4 percent declined to do so. Along with this, just 9.2 percent, i.e., ten countries, termed the severity as compared to the WHO, as reported by cidrap.umn.edu.

Wide recommendation of Steroids! 

Approximately ten therapeutics and medications were issued under the WHO guidelines; however, the NGs recommended 1 to 22 therapeutics. While outlining the same, the authors mentioned, “The most commonly recommended drugs were corticosteroids; 92% (100/109) of the NGs featured corticosteroids, and 80% (88/109) recommended corticosteroids for the same disease severity as did the WHO.”

In nearly 10% of guidelines, corticosteroids found themselves excluded from severe ailment recommendations, notwithstanding the robust evidence supporting their efficacy.

Throughout 2022, numerous nations, particularly those within less affluent regions, persisted in advocating treatments invalidated by the WHO. These treatments encompassed chloroquine, lopinavir-ritonavir, azithromycin, as well as various vitamins and zinc supplements, as cidrap.umn.edu outlined.

Why do different national guidelines diverge considerably in their recommended treatments for such a prevalent and potentially grave affliction despite the equal accessibility to pertinent information?

In this matter, the authors were quoted saying, “Why do NGs differ so much in their treatment guidance for such a widespread and potentially serious infection when all have access to the same information? Apart from the prohibitive cost of some medications for low-resource settings, we do not have a satisfactory explanation.”