Baby boy born eight weeks early becomes one of UK’s youngest coronavirus survivors after being treated with Ebola drug
A BABY boy born eight weeks early has become one of UK’s youngest coronavirus survivors after being treated with a drug to combat Ebola.
Charlie Little weighed just 4lb 10oz when he was born in March and spent a month in two different hospitals before being allowed home for the first time.
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However, the tot then contracted Covid-19 and – after he stopped breathing – was taken to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for urgent treatment.
While there, medics treated him with remdesivir which was initially created as a potential treatment for Ebola.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) once dubbed it “the most promising” treatments for Covid-19 being studied.
It is currently being trialled at 15 NHS sites across the UK to treat those struck down with the deadly virus.
Charlie has now recovered and is finally back home with his doting family in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire.
Speaking to the MailOnline, his mum Ellyse, 21, said: “It does feel like he has been in the wars and we are so grateful that he had the fight to survive. He is our miracle.”
“It is so nice to be able to hold him and give him cuddles. Seeing him lying in a cot in hospital with a mask on his face was just unbearable.”
Ellyse was taken into University College Hospital London on March 7 for an emergency caesarean as she is a diabetic and her sugar levels had dropped dramtically.
After being born so early, Charlie was at first kept on a neonatal unit at UCL Hospital.
He was then moved to the North Middlesex Hospital in North London before being allowed home where the family went into lockdown.
However, Ellyse said he then stopped feeding properly and paramedics were quickly called.
She revealed: “He did not have a cough or fever so we did not think he had caught the virus.”
The newborn was taken to Harlow Hospital in Essex where his condition deteriorated.
What is remdesivir and can it cure coronavirus?
Remdesivir is a result of more than a decade of Gilead Sciences research.
It has been tested for multiple potential applications over recent years.
The drug was used for treatment for Ebola in West Africa in 2014.
It has also been used as a treatment of SARS and for hepatitis C.
It has shown “very promising” early results in a trial of people with coronavirus.
Patients given it had a recovery time that was almost a third faster than those administered a placebo.
Recovery is a patient being well enough to come off oxygen, be discharged from hospital or even returning to normal activity levels.
Ellyse and partner Charlie Snr, 23, were then told their son would be tested for coronavirus before being moved to Great Ormond Street for monitoring.
“He had another test and within an hour or so it came back positive for coronavirus,” said the mum.
“Charlie was put on an oscillator machine (a small ventilator) and sedated. I so much wanted to pick him and give him a cuddle but I wasn’t allowed.”
Doctors advised using experimental remdesivir as they hoped it would help the tiny baby overcome the killer virus.
To make things worse for new dad Charlie Snr he was only able to see Ellyse and their son via Face Time calls to and from hospital.
The fighting tot – who now weighs a healthy 7lbs – was put on a 10-day treatment of the drug and after a week tested negative.
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Charlie Snr said: “These brilliant doctors and nurses saved our son’s life. We will forever to be grateful to them.”
So far remdesivir has reportedly only been used on 46 adults and a just a “handful” of children.
Dr Karyn Moshal of Great Ormond Street Hospital said the drug is currently only available on a compassionate use basis.