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About two weeks after Israel’s health system began vaccinating citizens against swine flu, Rambam administered, for the first time, an experimental medicine, Peramivir, to a patient hospitalized in serious condition with swine flu. For over two weeks, Kamal Halabi, 30 years old from Daliat-al-Carmel fought for his life in Rambam’s Department of Critical Care Medicine.
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Kamal Halabi at Rambam’s Department of Critical Care Medicine. |
After all treatments Kamal received did not improve his condition, Dr Yaron Bar-Lavie, director of
Department, decided to give him the experimental medicine. From the point he took the medicine, Kamal made steady progress, and was released from the hospital a week later.
Dr Bar-Lavie first learned of the medicine from Ministry of Health representatives at a conference of intensive care unit directors and infectious disease specialists. Convinced that Kamal was suited for this treatment, Dr Bar-Lavie applied to the Ministry of Health representatives for permission to try the drug, which he was granted.
“The patient was young, had no previous diseases or signs of risk. For 12 days, he had received "Tamiflu", and had not responded. He was in very serious condition and required mechanical ventilation with a high percentage of oxygen. We understood that we were not defeating the illness this way,” recalls Dr Bar-Lavie. “Within three days of treatment with the experimental medicine, we saw great improvement in the patient’s lungs, and examination showed that his body had stopped discharging the virus. On the fourth day, we stopped artificial ventilation, and the day after that he was sitting up in a chair, talking with his doctors and family members. In my opinion, this drug saved his life.”
Fadiya Halabi, the patient’s wife, had moments when she expected the worst. “We caught the illness from our two-year old daughter,” said Fadiyah. “She and I got over it but Kamal deteriorated. For two weeks he was respirated and anesthetized. Thank God he is now healthy. We got him back as a present in time for the Festival of Sacrifice.”
Peramivir, which is given intravenously, is approved by the FDA for use only as an emergency medicine. Produced by Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peramivir has been given in the USA and in Australia in experimental settings alone. Until Peramivir was administered in Israel, 32 patients had received the drug in the USA, of which 29 recovered.
The cost of a dose of the medicine for one patient is $3000 and in light of Kamal Halabi’s recovery, the Ministry of Health has decided to order 150 doses of the drug, in addition to the ten acquired by Israel beforehand. Shortly after Kamal Halabi began to recuperate, the drug was administered to two women, one of whom is (49 years old) hospitalized in Rambam. This patient has recovered as well and is in the process of being weaned off mechanical ventilation.
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