Ohio currently out of monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - A shortage of monoclonal antibody treatments is leaving people with COVID to look for other anti-viral treatments.

And the challenge there is that those treatments too are in short supply.

The monoclonal antibody treatment helps the patients mount an increased immune response against COVID.

It’s an infusion that takes just under half an hour.

Shannon Jones got the antibody treatment during the first week of December. That’s when despite being vaccinated, she was diagnosed with COIVD.

“I had a fever of 102.8 body aches my chest hurt, I had an awful cough.”

After five days of intense symptoms, Shannon’s doctor prescribed the monoclonal antibody treatment.

Even then Shannon had to drive around an hour away in Adrian. “I happen to wait at least 8 hours until I was taken back into a room,” Shannon says others had waited over 12 hours and driven from well over an hour away. It’s just that scarce.

ProMedica Dr. Brian Kaminski MD says “The good news is that we have some options the bad news is that our options are limited and they change on a daily basis.”

Doctors say only one of three types of monoclonal antibody treatments works against the omicron variant. The medication is being administered as fast as it gets delivered. “Currently in our Ohio hospitals we currently don’t have a supply. We’re expecting more this week. In our Michigan hospitals, we have a very limited supply.”

Health care systems expect they will get more of the antibody treatments in the coming days but they will be reserved for people who are considered at the highest risk for complications connected to COVID.

Dr. Kaminski says “We’re using prioritization and drug availability to decide how we can best serve all patients that have a need.”

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