Lowering Risk of Long COVID

John Buse, the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine and senior associate dean for clinical research at the UNC School of Medicine, co-authored a study showing that the common diabetes drug metformin substantially decreased the risk of developing long COVID after infection from SARS-CoV-2. The clinical trial was led by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The study, called COVID-OUT, investigated if early outpatient COVID-19 treatment with metformin, ivermectin or fluvoxamine could prevent long COVID. Long COVID is a chronic illness that can affect up to 10% of people who have had COVID-19.

This was a large, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial which enrolled volunteers across the United States.

The study found:

• Those who received metformin were more than 40% less likely to develop long COVID than those who received an identical looking placebo.
• For participants who started metformin less than four days after their COVID symptoms started, metformin decreased the risk of long COVID by 63%.
• The effect was consistent across different demographic populations of volunteers who participated and across multiple viral variants, including the Omicron variant.
• Ivermectin and fluvoxamine did not prevent long COVID.

“Not only did we demonstrate that metformin, an inexpensive and safe treatment, may prevent the development of long COVID in many people, but we validated that long COVID is a real disease in that a 14-day treatment can reduce the risk of long COVID symptoms and a doctor’s diagnosis over many months,” said Buse.

Learn more about the study…

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