Gov. Ducey, along with Dr Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General, are joining forces to urge Arizonians to get the Covid-19 vaccine and booster. Getting vaccinated helps to protect you, and your community, against Covid-19. “While AZ has come a long way in its battle against Covid-19, there is still a lot of work to do” Gov. Ducey said.
Wickenburg Community Hospital and Wickenburg Community Clinic will be hosting Covid-19 vaccine and booster clinics in January 2022. Upcoming dates, times and locations will be announced. Though the vaccine is not guaranteed to prevent the infection of COVID-19, vaccinated, and especially boosted, Americans are overwhelmingly avoiding severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
In the event you or a loved one does come down with COVID-19, Wickenburg Community Hospital proudly offers a therapy called monoclonal therapy. Monoclonal therapy is an IV infusion that has been authorized under the Emergency Use Act as an outpatient treatment for patients with a mild to moderate Covid-19 infection and who are at high risk for progression to more severe symptoms. Examples of high-risk conditions causing the patient to be at increased risk include but are not limited to patients with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, immunosuppression, asthma, substance use disorders, COPD, heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and many more. By reducing the viral load (amount of virus) within the body, this in turn also decreases hospitalizations and Covid-19 symptoms. For example, the higher the viral load of COVID-19 within the body, the worse the symptoms and potentially more contagious a patient is considered to be. Potential adverse reactions of this therapy include injection site reactions such as, redness, irritation, or itching around the IV insertion site with this reaction being the most common. Additional effects such as nausea or vomiting may occur as well.
Monoclonal therapy is administered at WCH on the Acute Care Unit but and all appointments are arranged through the Boyd Infusion Center. If you think you may be a candidate for this therapy, it is important you speak with your provider to assess the risks vs. benefits to make sure it is an appropriate therapy.
Qualifying events include: confirmation of a positive Covid-19 PCR or antigen test, the patient must be within 10 days of symptom onset and must meet the high risk qualifying conditions. Once this has been established by the provider, they need to fill out 2 forms giving approval for treatment. These forms are then faxed to the pharmacy and infusion center. When these forms are received, the scheduler at the Boyd infusion center will reach out to the patient to schedule an appointment. Monoclonal therapy is a one-time dose administered by our highly trained faculty. The infusion duration typically takes about an hour, with an additional hour of observation post-infusion. This is done to safely ensure the patient responds well to the infusion and no adverse reactions occur. To gather more information regarding Regeneron you may also reach out to the hospital pharmacy staff to answer any other questions you may have, by calling 928-684-5499.