A large retrospective study found early antiviral treatment for Covid‐19, such as Paxlovid, is associated with a reduced risk of uveitis.
Corresponding author Dr Chun‐Ju Lin from the Department of Ophthalmology, China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan, said the findings suggest that in addition to mitigating systemic disease progression, antiviral therapy may grant ocular protective effects, which could be especially meaningful for high‐risk populations.
Using large‐scale real‐world data from the TriNetX platform, the multi‐institutional, population‐based cohort study compared 438,455 adults (≥18 years) diagnosed with Covid‐19 between 2022 and 2024 who received antiviral agents (Paxlovid, Molnupiravir or Remdesivir) within five days of diagnosis with 438,455 untreated controls.
Antiviral therapy was associated with a significantly lower risk of new‐onset uveitis
at three months (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.45–0.87), six months (HR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.54–0.87), 12 months (HR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.64–0.91), three years (HR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.70–0.92) and all duration (HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.71–0.93).
