NMCSD Administers Hospital’s First mAb Treatment to COVID-19 Patient

Photo By Petty Officer 3rd Class Harley Sarmiento | 210126-N-NH199-1023 SAN DIEGO (Jan 26, 2020) Lt. Cmdr. Raben Talvo, Naval Medical Center San Diego's (NMCSD) Office of Clinical Quality department head, administers the hospital’s first monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment to a COVID-19-positive patient Jan. 26. Bamlanivimab, the mAb treatment, is administered under emergency use authorization (EUA) guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms in some adult and pediatric patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 symptoms. NMCSD's mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services, and shape the future of military medicine through education, training, and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians, and contractors in Southern California to provide patients withworld-class care anytime, anywhere. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Harley K. Sarmiento)  

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES

01.26.2021

Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob L. Greenberg 

Naval Medical Center San Diego

SAN DIEGO –Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) administered the hospital’s first monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment to a COVID-19-positive patient Jan. 26.
Bamlanivimab, the mAb treatment, is administered under emergency use authorization (EUA) guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to the FDA’s Dec. 11 Fact Sheet for Health Care Providers EUA of Bamlanivimab, the product is for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kg) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing, and who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.
“This is a historic event for our facility,” said Lt. Cmdr. Raben Talvo, NMCSD’s Office of Clinical Quality department head. “The treatment is infused via IV, and [is designed] to decrease or slow down the replication of the virus in the patient. We’re preventing the patient’s symptoms from getting worse, thus lessening the strain on our healthcare facility.”
Talvo, a registered nurse, administered the mAb treatment and adhered to the FDA’s high-risk patient guidelines.
“[The treatment] is a one time, one hour infusion plus one hour of observation,” said Talvo. “It’s key for us to identify potential patients who have not only tested positive for COVID-19, but have experienced an onset of symptoms within 10 days before we can offer this treatment. These potential patients would have had mild to moderate symptoms for 10 days or less, and this treatment is not for people who are currently admitted into a hospital due to their symptoms.”
Capt. Juliann Althoff, NMCSD’s chief medical officer with a background in preventative medicine and a public health physician by trade, said the mAb therapy is currently being administered through local health systems and other military training facilities.
“It’s given as an outpatient infusion with the goal of minimizing severe illness and hospitalizations,” said Althoff. “In addition to the public health essentials of physical distancing and mask-wearing, and the upcoming rollouts of vaccines, [mAb therapy] is an additional option we can now offer our beneficiaries.”
Lt. Cmdr. Alison Lane, NMCSD’s Infectious Diseases division head, said the hospital offers the mAb treatment infusion to all eligible patients, but the decision to proceed is reached via an individualized, shared decision-making process with each patient.
“Getting the mAb treatment to the right patients at the right time to safely maximize potential benefits is logistically challenging,” said Lane. “We’ve been able to work through these issues at NMCSD with strong, multidisciplinary cooperation between directorates.”
Lane echoed her colleagues’ thoughts that preventing hospital admissions for COVID-19 is not only beneficial to individual patients, but also reduces strain on this hospital and the healthcare system as a whole.
Vaccinations, novel treatments, social distancing, mask wearing and hand washing are just some of the ways that NMCSD is working to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
NMCSD’s mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services and shape the future of military medicine through education, training and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians and contractors in Southern California to provide patients with world-class care anytime, anywhere.
Visit navy.mil or facebook.com/NMCSD for more information.

• Date Taken: 01.26.2021
• Date Posted: 01.29.2021 16:30
• Story ID: 387960
• Location: SAN DIEGO, CA, US