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HEALTH

Danish health authority withdraws Covid-19 pill

The Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) no longer recommends the Covid-19 therapeutic medicine Lagevrio, citing the medicine’s lack of effectiveness.

Published: 27 February 2023 16:48 CET
Danish health authority withdraws Covid-19 pill
FILE PHOTO: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19 Covid-19 treatment pills Paxlovid and Lagevrio. The latter will no longer be used in Denmark after failing to receive EMA approval. File photo: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

Persons at risk of severe illness with Covid-19 will no longer be prescribed the therapeutic medicine Lagevrio in Denmark.

The country’s Health Authority decided to pull the medicine from use in the health system after it was deemed to lack the requisite efficiency to justify its use as a prescribed treatment.

The tablet has been withdrawn due to its low effectiveness rather than because of safety concerns, the agency said.

The decision comes following evaluation of Lagevrio by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). EMA has concluded that the medicine should not be recommended for final approval.

It has been used in Denmark despite not having EMA approval under a Danish Medicines Agency general arrangement.

“We have been looking forward to the final evaluation from the EMA, which we will naturally adhere to. The EMA has now rejected the medicine, and we will therefore no longer recommend that Lagevrio is used in Denmark,” senior medical consultant Kirstine Moll Harboe of the Danish Health Authority said in a press statement.

“We note that the failure to give approval is not a result of problems with the medicines safety, but that there is a lack of documentation for good effectiveness,” she said.

A total of 6,281 people in Denmark have used the medicine between December 2021 and December 2022, according to Danish Health Authority data. Around 70 percent of them were over the age of 65.

The medicine was given to persons who are at an increased risk of severe illness due to Covid-19.

READ ALSO: Denmark to close all remaining Covid-19 test centres by end of March

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HEALTH

Denmark registers first 2024 case of tick-borne encephalitis

This year’s first Danish case of tick-borne encephalitis has been registered in northern Zealand, the national infectious disease agency State Serum Institute (SSI) confirmed.

Published: 21 June 2024 10:45 CEST
Denmark registers first 2024 case of tick-borne encephalitis

Although the disease is very rare in Denmark, there are usually a handful of cases each year. The forested area around Tisvilde Hegn and elsewhere in northern Zealand are particular risk zones along with parts of Bornholm.

“Infection is usually linked to spending time in risk areas, and typically going off the paths, Peter H.S. Andersen, doctor and head of department at SSI, said in a statement.

“But there have also been cases of TBE where the patient has not demonstrated known risk behaviour by going into in woods or thickets,” he added.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about ticks in Denmark and how to avoid them

Earlier this year, it was reported that people in Copenhagen and surrounding areas of Zealand have increasingly sought vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) after an increase in ticks in parts of the countryside.

The risk of TBE remains small but case numbers have increased slightly in recent years. Some 11 cases were registered in 2023 compared with around 1 or 2 annually a decade ago.

Ticks (skovflåter) can be found all over Denmark in forests, meadows, and long grass. They are particularly active during the summer months and increase in number if the weather has been warm and humid.

In Denmark, the most common disease ticks transmit is Lyme disease, but ticks can also carry the very rare but dangerous TBE.

Only people who spend extended time in forests near Tisvilde Hegn as well as on the island of Bornholm should consider vaccination, SSI experts have previously said.

TBE is a viral brain infection caused by a particular tick bite. Flu-like symptoms can occur a week or more after the bite and can develop to include nausea, dizziness, and in around a third of cases, severe long-term problems or permanent neurological damage.

Denmark’s tick season last from spring until autumn.

In contrast to Lyme disease, the TBE virus infects its target quickly after the tick bite.

“That’s why it’s important to remove a tick as soon as you find it. Either with your fingers, a tweezer or a special tick remover,” Andersen said.

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