A Clinical Trial of Gargling Agents in Reducing Intraoral Viral Load Among COVID-19 Patients
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2022-07-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Pakistan is a resource restraint country, it's not possible to carry out coronavirus testing
at mass scale. Simple cost effective intervention against the present pandemic is highly
desirable.
For patients: Identifying an antiviral gargle that could substantially reduce the colonies of
COVID-19 residing in mouth and oro-naso-pharynx is likely to reduce the viral load. Such
reduction in the viral load through surface debridement could aid the effective immune
response in improving the overall symptoms of the patients.
For dentists: This study is important because the nature of the dental profession involves
aerosol production, carrying out dental work on asymptomatic patients carrying coronavirus
puts the entire dental team at a great risk of not only acquiring the infection but also
transmitting it to the others. Antiviral gargles could be used by dentist and their
auxiliaries as prophylaxis.
For physicians and nurses: The risk of morbidity and mortality is high among physicians and
nurses involved in the screening and management of Covid-19 patients. Globally, over 215
physicians and surgeons have died while taking care of Covid-19 patients. The cause of death
is attributed to high exposure of viral load. The antiviral gargles and nasal lavage can
decrease the fatalities among doctors and nurses.
Thus, patients, physicians, nurses and dentists, all could be benefited with this findings of
this study.