Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center recently opened one of the state’s first infusion centers for COVID-19 antibody treatment. The facility is for high-risk patients suffering from the disease.
"The goal of the infusion is to reduce hospitalization, and to help patients start to improve earlier in their illness."
Dena Ollis is the Director of the center.
The infusion center provides therapy to those who might otherwise require hospitalization.
"This monoclonal antibody, it mimics the immune system response to the virus and is proven to block the virus from entering and attaching to those cells."
For more information, visit piedmont.org/covid19. Athens Piedmont Regional is an underwriter with WUGA.
The center will administer Bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment for high-risk patients diagnosed with COVID-19 that do not require hospitalization and oxygen therapy.
Those considered high risk include:
People who are 65 years of age and older,
· People who have chronic kidney disease,
· People who have an immunosuppressive disease state or are receiving immunosuppressive therapy,
· People who have a body mass index of 35 and higher,
· People with diabetes,
· And people 55 years of age and older with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, COPD or other chronic respiratory diseases.
To receive treatment, patients need to be referred to the infusion center by a doctor within the first 10 days of having symptoms of COVID-19.
