There is no specific treatment available for COVID 19,all over the world.

In such case, the only treatment which can be useful is the symptomatic treatment.

The troublesome symptoms which need to be addressed are ,fever,headache and bodyache apart from cough

The most widely used drug to get relief from fever and pain is paracetamol and acetaminophen derivatives.

Some people do not feel comfortable even after taking Paracetamol and continue to feel headache ,bodyache,and fever.

These cohort of people get relief after taking Ibuprofen.

It was believed at the outset of epidemic of COVID 19,that the use of Ibuprofen may worsen the severity of COVID 19 and people refrained from using this drug.

Researchers from Israel studied the effects of Ibuprofen in patients of COVID 19.They studied 403 patients with the median age of 45 years.They observed the patients from 1 week prior to the diagnosis to,throughout the course of disease.

44% patients developed fever who required its treatment.32% patients used Acetaminophen and 22% used paracetamol to treat their fever.

Respiratory support was needed in  11% patients in Acetaminophen group and approximately10% in Ibuprofen group(P=1).

Mortality was noticed in 2.4% patients using Acetaminophen and 3.8% using Ibuprofen(P=0.95)

  So,there was no difference observed between Acetaminophen group and Ibuprofen group as far as the need for respiratory support or mortality are concerned

Although there are many limitations of this study including recall bias and no study among asymptomatic patients,this is an important study which needs further study on larger population before making a general opinion.

REFERENCES;

Rinott E, Kozer E, Shapira Y, Bar-Haim A, Youngster I. Ibuprofen use and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients [published online June, 11 2020]. Clin Microbiol Infect. doi:10.1016/j.cmi.2020.06.003