Savannah doctor providing treatment for long-term COVID-19 effects

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - While we wait for a COVID-19 vaccine, some doctors are looking at treatment options for the infectious disease that has now impacted more than 12 million people across the country.

One Savannah Doctor is working on an emergency investigational new drug shown to not only help those fighting COVID-19 in the moment, but also those with lingering side effects.

Nearly a hundred thousand people are diagnosed with COVID-19 daily across the country, but what we are still learning is how many of those are experiencing long-term effects from the new virus. This is something Dr. Allen Meglin is studying alongside Organicell in Savannah.

“COVID is really a multi-system disease that affects your heart, your lungs, your kidneys, your brain and we believe that treatment with Zofin helps your body’s immune system regulate that, so that it doesn’t happen. It’s fascinating and it’s unbelievably rewarding as a physician to see these people get better,” Regenerative Medicine and Principal Investigator Dr. Allen Meglin said.

With FDA approval for an emergency investigational new drug, Dr. Meglin has given several patients, described as COVID long-haulers, Zofin. It’s an IV treatment given three times, four days apart.

“Zofin is derived from human amniotic fluid donated from live births. It’s perinatal tissues that’ve been very heavily screened and it contains over 300 growth factors and proteins that regulate your immune system as well as nanoparticles which contains noncoding microRNA. The RNA acts as a signal that tells your immune system how to behave and down regulate,” Dr. Meglin said.

He says, so far, there haven’t been any negative side effects, but he has seen positive results.

“After the first dose there was a dramatic improvement in their mental fog as well as their sense of wellbeing, and then they started to have slight improvement in their oxygenation which we measured before, during and after the treatment. After their second dose their energy level went up their stamina went up, they started to feel continue to feel better and they started to oxygenate even better. After the third dose they started talking about going back to work it was very interesting how uniform that sentiment was,” Dr. Meglin said.

While this is still in the early phases the FDA did approve trials for COVID treatment, but as for use in long-hauler cases that is still in the process, but Dr. Meglin is hopeful for what could be and is working to get funding and patients to join when given the green light.

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