COVID Monoclonal Antibody Treatments in the Baton Rouge Area: Where to Get Them, How They Work | New

State health officials plan to open a new center for monoclonal antibody infusions – a treatment for people who have contracted COVID – in the parking lot at Baton Rouge General’s Mid City campus that will be able to treat 200 people per day.

The new center is one of many that the state or federal government are rolling out this month in Louisiana, adding to the 16 infusion sites already operating in the greater Baton Rouge area, according to the listings. federal.

Most of these sites are linked to area hospitals, including Our Lady of the Lake facilities in Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension; Ochsner Baton Rouge; The Bluebonnet Campus in Baton Rouge General, Prevost Memorial Hospital in Donaldsonville, and Pointe Coupee General Hospital in New Roads.

Baton Rouge General’s new second location will operate seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. It will be located at the corner of North Boulevard and Lovers Lane, across from Entrance 3 of the hospital, officials said. the hospital. The crews were already setting up a large tent on Tuesday for the operation.

As the pandemic has spread, herbal teas have grown in popularity as a way to alleviate symptoms of COVID in those infected. But doctors say it doesn’t replace vaccines, which are very effective at preventing infection in the first place – and, in rare cases of “breakthrough infections”, at preventing hospitalizations and death.

Yet antibody treatments have been shown to be effective for people in the early stages of symptoms. Treatments are limited to those who have had symptoms for 10 days or less.

Dr Ralph Dauterive, vice president of medical affairs at Ochsner Baton Rouge, said hospital data shows antibody treatments have not produced adverse effects and have helped keep people out of hospital.

In Ochsner, about 0.4% of people with moderate symptoms who received the treatment ended up being hospitalized. About 11% or 12% of those with moderate symptoms who had not received treatment were hospitalized.

“I mean it really works, you know,” Dauterive said. “We were pretty happy with it, that’s for sure.”

As part of the REGEN-COV treatment now available, patients receive two sets of antibodies intravenously. They work like natural bodies, attaching to the virus’s advanced proteins and blocking its ability to enter cells, replicate and spread, according to an Ochsner backgrounder.

Treatments take about 20 to 50 minutes, but patients usually need to be observed afterwards. Baton Rouge General spokesperson Katie Johnston said the entire process at the hospital’s Bluebonnet campus typically takes less than two hours.

The federal government does not allow hospitals to bill for the treatment itself, but the associated costs may vary.

Tramel said his Prairieville hospital does not charge for treatment, but only admits people through its emergency room, so they may have fees related to other services.

Infusions at the new Baton Rouge General infusion center will be free. But they will need a doctor’s referral.

In addition to having symptoms for 10 days or less, the center will also have limited treatments to people 65 years of age and over, those with certain medical conditions, those who are pregnant, those who are addicted to medical technology or who are overweight.

Dauterive said Ochsner used the treatments to help ease the impact of a fourth wave of COVID patients caused by the delta variant of the virus. The increase filled about 170 beds at the hospital’s two facilities in Baton Rouge at its peak last month.

But, during the worst part of the wave, Dauterive said almost everyone was able to get the treatments at Ochsner.

During the peak, the hospital was giving 75 to 80 antibody treatments per day. This rate has fallen among adolescents.

Johnston, spokeswoman for Baton Rouge General, noted a similar drop in demand for treatments as the fourth wave peaked.

“The trend is down,” said Will Tramel, director of nursing at Prairieville Family Hospital in Ascension Parish.

Tramel noted that Monday was the first time in weeks that the private emergency and trauma care center along the air highway failed to give a single treatment, although the numbers still vary between 5 and 20. per day.

But health officials warn another surge in COVID cases could occur, as long as vaccination rates remain low in Louisiana.