LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — "Almost 100% of the circulating viruses here in the U.S. is suspected to Omicron," said Dr. Naveen Patil, deputy state health officer for the Arkansas Department of Health.
The Federal Drug Administration revoked the emergency use authorization on antibody infusion treatments from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company.
"These medications are not effective," Patil said.
According to the FDA, the treatments are ineffective against the now-dominant Omicron variant.
The question now, is what is available for COVID positive patients who need treatments?
"So there's multiple monoclonal antibodies that have been on the market," said Dr. Ryan Dare, Associate Professor of Medicine and infectious diseases physician at UAMS.
One of the medicines Dare said UAMS is using for mild cases is Sotrovimab.
"It works on Omicron, just as well as it worked on Delta, just as well as it worked on alpha and the other variants," Dare said.
Those treatments are usually given in the hospital's COVID infusion center.
They see nearly 20 outpatients daily.
"When we have monoclonal available, we pretty much max that out every single day," Dare said.
Patil said the state is seeing a supply shortage in other drugs, such as Paxlovid.
That is proven to treat mild cases as well, if taken within a few days after infection.
Since the supply doesn't meet the demand, though, Patil adds patients older than 65-years-old and high risk patients will usually come first.
"Most of our providers are doing due diligence and giving it to patients that are at the highest risk," Patil said.
One thing to keep in mind, a supply shortage of some COVID treatments are limited.
Health leaders hope that once Omicron infections decline, the supply will be available to more people.
The Arkansas Blood Institute is also once again collecting convalescent plasma from blood donations.
You can learn more at http://arkbi.org/.