ORLANDO, Fla. – One of Central Florida’s largest hospital systems is reminding families a lifesaving COVID-19 treatment is offered within its medical wings.
AdventHealth said it continues to provide monoclonal antibody treatments for eligible patients, a treatment option that has resurfaced as the country grapples with the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19.
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Monoclonal antibodies can reduce the severity of COVID-19 in high-risk patients and in turn, help them avoid hospitalizations and stay out of the intensive care unit, a spokesperson with the hospital said in a news release.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Florida is increasing the availability of therapy and is exploring additional long-term locations across the state.
As the governor works to make the treatment more widely available, AdventHealth emphasized its approach to the treatment has been successful throughout the pandemic.
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Since December 2020, AdventHealth has provided more than 3,600 monoclonal antibody treatments in Central Florida, according to a news release. Those patients were people 12 or older who tested positive for COVID-19, had mild-to-moderate symptoms for 10 or fewer days and were at high-risk for progressing severe coronavirus.
“The idea with monoclonal antibody treatments is to block that [COVID-19] protein, and stop the virus from attaching to your cells so they cannot reproduce,” said chief medical officer for AdventHealth Medical Group and OB-GYN Dr. Michael Cacciatore.
Patients must have a physician referral to receive the treatment. These are the three AdventHealth outpatient clinic locations offering the procedure in Central Florida:
- Tavares, Lake County
- Orlando, Orange County
- Orange City, Volusia County
AdventHealth says it can administer 670 monoclonal antibody treatments each week in Central Florida.