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Rebelote. AP-HP is launching a national study to find out if nicotine protects against the virus. “French epidemiological data show a significantly lower rate of active smokers in the Covid-19 population compared to the general population,” explains the AP-HP (November 20), thus justifying the launch of a national study on more than 1,600 people. Some of them will wear nicotine patches for 4-5 months and others will wear placebo patches, in order to be able to compare and verify whether or not nicotine has a preventive effect against the Covid-19 virus, he says. “AFP. In support of this hypothesis, the AP-HP points out in its press release that” French epidemiological data show a significantly lower rate of active smokers in the Covid-19 population than in the general population. “These data have been confirmed. and also reinforced by various studies, including one showing that the use of nicotine substitutes in smokers is associated with a significant decrease in the risk of hospitalization for Covid-19, “he continues. However, this is not primarily a reason to smoke. cigarettes hoping to be protected from Covid-19: “Tobacco kills much more than it protects”, warns the AP-HP, in its press release. Already a few months ago the hypothesis was advanced that nicotine could have an effect protective against Covid-19 “by inhibiting the penetration and propagation of the virus into cells (thanks to an action on the entry receptors of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus)”. “It could therefore have a prophylactic (prevention) role on Covid-19 infection”, supposes the AP-HP. Its goal is to bring together 1,633 study participants by recruiting them from “medical and non-medical nursing staff working in a health institution (doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, physiotherapists, stretcher bearers, radio manipulators, health students …)”. They must be non-smokers (or former smokers who have quit more than twelve months), have no history of Covid-19 and work “in contact with patients (whether or not they have Covid-19)”. “The inclusions have just begun in the hospitals of Pitié-Salpêtrière and Charles-Foix (AP-HP). In the next few days they are destined to extend across the country in fifteen hospitals, including the hospital group in the Mulhouse region and southern Alsace “, concludes the AP-HP. Last spring, with the announcement of an alleged protective effect of nicotine against Covid-19 (to date not proven), the rush for nicotine substitutes had been such that the government had limited it the sale.
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