The Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris is testing the effectiveness of nicotine patches in the prevention of Covid-19 on hospital staff.
- Nicotine could protect against Covid-19
- To verify this, a study will focus on caregivers equipped with patches.
Does nicotine have a protective effect against Covid-19? The results of an observational study, carried out at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, prove it. In April 2020, French researchers showed that smokers were few among the serious cases of Covid-19. Now they want to test their hypothesis to understand if nicotine does indeed protect against Covid-19. One communicated of November 20, 2020 indicates that a study, called Nicovid Prev, was launched at the Pitié-Salpêtrière and Charles Foix hospital (Ivry-sur-Seine). 15 other hospitals are expected to participate in the coming days.
A study carried out among nursing staff
Professor Zahir Amoura, research coordinator, and his team want to constitute a sample of 1633 people: all nursing staff, whether medical or not. They can be doctors, nursing auxiliaries but also physiotherapists, stretcher bearers or even radio manipulators. These people must all be non-smokers, or have quit more than a year ago. They will wear a patch for four to five months, for half of the group it will be a nicotine patch, for the others a placebo. The researchers will follow all the participants for six to seven months. “The evaluation of the effectiveness will be done through clinical and biological examinations and questionnaires”the statement said.
Smoking remains harmful to health
The hypothesis is that nicotine helps to inhibit “the penetration and spread of the virus in the cells (thanks to an action of nicotine on the SARS-COV2 entry receptors (ACE2 receptors))”. This action of the substance on the cells would create a protective effect against Covid-19, by preventing the virus from attaching to the receptors. The AP-HP recalls, however, that this research is not an incitement to smoke, quite the contrary. “There is no reason to hope for a positive risk/benefit ratio of smoking in the fight against COVID-19explains the text. Tobacco kills far more than it protects.” Each year, it causes 75,000 deaths in France.
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