The Catalan Medical Association calls judicial authorisation to use ozone therapy against severe covid a "dangerous precedent"
Castellón judge suspends controversial treatment for patient due to improvement in his condition and authorises his transfer to private centre
Barcelona / ValenciaThe Council of Medical Colleges of Catalonia (CCMC) and the Academy of Medical and Health Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands (ACMSCB) have denounced this Friday that the authorisation of a Barcelona court to use ozone therapy as a compassionate treatment for a serious coronavirus patient represents a "dangerous precedent" and a "disavowal of the health system", since both the doctors responsible for the patient's care and the centre where he is being treated advise against this measure. "This authorisation of the use of ozone is contrary to current protocols, the therapeutic recommendations of the health authorities of Catalonia and the Spanish Medicines Agency and the current legislation on the compassionate use of drug treatments", they say in a statement.
The administrative court number 6 of Barcelona on Wednesday authorised the application of ozone therapy to a serious covid-19 patient by emergency means after his family requested it. The order justifies the decision on the grounds that "the patient is depressed and intubated, with his life in danger and with a fairly negative prognosis after the other treatments applied have not given good results" and defends that this therapy does not harm the general interests or those of third parties. On the other hand, the magistrate in charge of the case points out, there is a "possibility" that the patient could be cured. In fact, the documentation provided by the family stresses that "ozone therapy is being applied in other hospitals in Spain, and in other countries, and is giving very good results in serious patients", that the doctor in charge of the patient "has the necessary equipment and resources" and that she has not opposed the practice of this treatment.
Sources with access to information on the case explained to ARA that the patient is intubated in a very serious condition, admitted to a private hospital, referred from a public one due to the availability of ICU space. "Such a drastic alteration in the care of the patient does not comply with the criteria of the lex artis of the medical act", underlines the CCMC in the communiqué. In addition, the Catalan and Balearic doctors denounce that while patients have the right to decide which proposed therapeutic procedures they undergo, they do not have the right to demand that a specific one be administered to them, not even in the context of clinical trials. "Far from bringing any improvement, this introduces confusion and above all generates a false expectation in patients in very serious situation regarding a treatment that has not passed any of the established filters and has been specifically discouraged by the health authorities", they insist in reference to ozone therapy.
These arguments are also made by the Department of Health: immediately after learning of the court decision, the department publicly denounced that ozone therapy is a practice "that contradicts the health criteria" and announced that it would study the relevant allegations to prevent this pseudotherapy from being applied in this case or in other future cases. "It is not recognised as medicine by regulatory agencies and the protocol of the Catalan Health Service advises against its use. There is no scientific evidence of its benefit", the Catalan Health minister, Josep Maria Argimon, insisted on Friday.
For its part, the Spanish Society of Ozone Therapy (SEOT) argues that ozone therapy has been included in the portfolio of services of the National Health System for a decade, specifically in the pain units. "Ozone treatments have the support and scientific endorsement of medical societies such as the Spanish Pain Society and the Spanish Multidisciplinary Society of Pain", they say in a statement. In addition, they insist, the Ministry of Health has authorised several clinical trials with ozone therapy in the last 15 years in cases of herniated disc and justify that there are articles published in journals that ratify its use in various pathologies. As for the treatment of severe non-critical covid, the SEOT notes that there is an authorised clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this therapy. "In Italy and India the positive effect of ozone therapy in non-critical patients has been demonstrated", they conclude.
New resolution in Castellón
On the other hand, the magistrate David Yuste, head of the administrative contentious court number 1 of Castellón de la Plana, has agreed to suspend from 1 September the controversial resolution that forced the Hospital de la Plana de Vila-real to apply ozone therapy to a seriously ill patient with coronavirus. This means that from this date the patient will no longer be administered ozone because "the improvement" in his health removes him from the "risk to life" and allows his transfer to a private centre to continue with the experimental treatment, as requested by the family since 25 August. A team from outside the public centre enters the ICU every day to administer ozone, despite the opposition of the professionals and the Generalitat Valenciana.
Once again, the court decision goes against the criteria of the hospital's management, which also opposes the transfer of the patient because of the danger it would pose to his condition. Thus, the magistrate once again prioritises the arguments of the doctors hired by the family, who argue that the patient "is safe" and that the risk of transferring him to another centre is "low-moderate". The judge also appreciates the will of the family, who, once again, assume the risk of the transfer. However, in order to "exercise extreme caution", he postponed the decision to withdraw the ozone until next Wednesday.
