WHO Recommends Two New Drugs To Treat COVID-19

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World Health Organisation on Friday (January 14, 2022) came up with two new drugs for covid-19, providing the world with two additional options to treat covid patients.
This came as the country is reeling under covid third wave and Omicron threat at the same time.

The WHO in its release mentioned that extent to which both these drugs will save lives depends on how widely the medicines will be available and affordable at the same time.

Baricitinib

This drug is recommended particularly for those patients with severe or critical covid-19. It is an oral drug and is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
This drug belongs to the family of drugs called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors. It suppresses the overstimulation of the immune system.
This oral drug also provides an alternative to other arthritis drugs known as Interleukin-6 receptor blockers, which was recommended by WHO in July 2021.

It is developed by GlaxoSmithKline with US partner Vir Biotechnology Inc. This drug is an investigational monoclonal antibody to be used in treating conditions caused by covid-19.
This should be consumed by patients with mild or moderate covid-19 who are exposed to the risk of hospitalization, recommended WHO. Patients with underlying conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or those who are unvaccinated are highly recommended to take this oral drug Sotrovimab.
The drug has also been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use for treating mild to moderate covid-19 patients above 12 years.

In the severe phase of covid-19 in patients, there is an inflammation that triggers severe disease in the body.
This has to be mediated with the help of certain inflammatory markers which are infused by
Both the drugs may have different mechanisms of action but the studies have proven mortality benefit if used with steroids in patients with a serious infection.
The antibody cocktail casirivimab-imdevimab can’t help patients with the Omicron variant. On the other hand, sotrovimab can be used in mild illness with both Delta and Omicron patients.

Baricitinib is affordable and is also widely available. The drug Is given to control hyper inflammation which a patient starts to feel between days 7 and 14.
Usually, at that moment, patients start feeling breathless and that is the time when we give them steroids and add tocilizumab. In case there is a spike in patients hospitalization, we use an alternative which is a widely used drug—
Sotrovimab is not available in India, for now at least. However, experts said that the currently available monoclonal antibodies should be used only if we have patients with Delta variant otherwise not.
These recommendations are based on new evidence from 7 trials that include 4000 individuals with critical, non-severe, and severe COVID-19 infection.
These recommendations are part of a living guideline, developed by WHO and the methodical support of MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation, to provide guidance on the management of COVID-19 and help physicians make better decisions for patients.
Living guidelines are useful in fast-moving research areas, such as COVID-19, because they allow investigators to update previously peer-reviewed and vetted evidence summaries as new information becomes available.
The panel considers a combination of evidence assessing relative benefits, feasibility, harm, preferences, and values to make their recommendations.

Question:
Viruses that infect bacteria are called: