Inhaled antiseptics and inhaled antiviral non-prescription drugs in the prevention of ARVI, in particular COVID-19: an epidemiological study

BACKGROUND. The article presents the results of a continuous, cross-sectional, non-interventional, multicenter retrospective epidemiological study, which included cases of 3443 participants. Questionnaires and rapid test for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were used to collect data. OBJECTIVE. To determine the relationship between the systematic use of additional drugs for the prevention of COVID-19, including inhaled antiseptics and inhaled antiviral drugs, separately and in combination with other drugs, and the risk of developing of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. 396 participants (11.8 %) took inhaled antiseptics in any period since March 2020, and 410 participants (12.2 %) took inhaled antivirals. A statistically significant protective relationship between episode of COVID-19 when taking inhaled antiseptics and inhaled antiviral drugs (risk ratio 0.901; 95 % confidence interval 0.856-0.948) was determined. CONCLUSIONS. The use of inhaled antiseptics and inhaled antiviral drugs as additional methods of prevention of COVID-19 has shown a statistically significant effect not only on reducing the risk of COVID-19, but different combinations of inhaled antiseptics or inhaled antiviral drugs with other drug groups as additional methods of preventing COVID-19 had a statistically significant protective relationship with the episode of the disease, with the severity of COVID-19 and with the need for hospitalization.