Baby's eye color changed!
(Image source: Live Science)
In a surprising event, the brown-color of the eyes of a 6-month-old boy in Thailand turned a deep indigo blue color after he was given the antiviral Favipiravir to treat COVID-19, reported Live Science. The boy was taken to a hospital after he developed a fever and cough, according to a report published in April in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics. After testing positive for COVID-19, the baby boy was given Favipiravir tablets and also a syrup containing the drug.
What is Favipiravir?
Favipiravir is used to kill a variety of viruses by stopping the germs from replicating their genetic material. In early 2020, the drug was approved in China to treat COVID-19. Since then, several other countries such as India, Japan and Thailand, have authorized use of this drug to treat mild to severe COVID-19. In Thailand, Favipiravir is the main antiviral given to children infected with COVID-19.
What happened in this case?
(Representative image)
Just 18 hours after the infant took the drug, his mother noticed that his eyes shone blue in the sunlight. Upon examining the child, doctors discovered a buildup of blue pigment in both corneas.
How did they fix it back?
(Representative image)
After receiving Favipiravir for three days, the baby boy’s COVID-19 symptoms improved. His doctor halted the treatment due to the strange color change in his eyes. Five days after the treatment was stopped, the boy's eyes returned to their usual color.
What causes the blue color?
(Representative image)
In the new report, the boy's doctors wrote that this fluorescence "may be due to the drug, its metabolites, or additional tablet components such as titanium dioxide and yellow ferric oxide." Favipiravir tablets have been found to be fluorescent under UV light in the lab, they noted, so it may be that the drug's fluorescent components end up accumulating in different tissues, such as the cornea.
Other reports of Favipiravir and blue eyes
In December 2021, the corneas of a 20-year-old man with brown eyes turned blue for a day after he took Favipiravir.
In the summer prior to that report, another group of doctors reported having a man come to their hospital to show that the surface of his eyes glowed fluorescent after he took Favipiravir. Another 2022 case report described flecks of fluorescence that appeared in the whites of three people's eyes, as well as in their nails and some teeth, after they took Favipiravir.
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