COVID could become much more treatable , NHS boss says Alan McGuinness, political reporter
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Coronavirus could become a much more treatable disease in the next six to 18 months, the head of the NHS in England has told MPs.
Appearing in front of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, Sir Simon Stevens said he hoped more treatments for
COVID-19 would emerge in the future.
Coupled with the continued vaccines rollout, the NHS England chief executive said this offers the hope of a return to a much more normal future . The first half of the year, vaccination is going to be crucial, Sir Simon said.
COVID-19 could become much more treatable in next six to 18 months, NHS boss tells MPs kingdomfm.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kingdomfm.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LONDON: A leading British public health expert has claimed the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) could become “much more treatable” in the next six to 18 months.
Sir Simon Stevens, the head of Public Health England, told UK MPs the world could look forward to a “much more normal future” with the onset of new treatments, as well as vaccine programs.
Sir Simon told the UK Health and Social Care Select Committee: ”The first half of the year, vaccination is going to be crucial. I think a lot of us in the health service are increasingly hopeful that the second half of the year and beyond, we will also see more therapeutics and more treatments for coronavirus.
Since 2008 life-changing Kuvan, BioMarin s brand name for sapropterin, has been available across Europe.
It costs around £45,000 per adult-per-year but as low as £4,000 for a toddler yet for over ten years the NHS have failed to strike a deal.
NHS drugs appraiser the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) are again reviewing Kuvan, with a decision due in April.
Holly and Callum look at our coverage (Image: )
Meanwhile BioMarin s patents have now expired, meaning now in 2021 rival firms can make their own, cheaper version.
If BioMarin refuse to lower their price, campaigners urge NHSE to negotiate a deal with cheaper generic drug makers instead.
Thousands of probable cases of Covid caught in hospitals in NHS England have been excluded from official figures.
Health officials calculating the rate of cases in hospital settings omitted instances where patients contracted coronavirus between seven and 14 days after admission - despite the fact the virus has an incubation period of up to six days in 95 per cent of cases.
This practice goes directly against official advice to staff to categorised these cases as hospital onset infections, and allowed NHS England to claim that its nosocomial rates - referring to Covid patients infected in hospital - are down to as little as 7.7 per cent.