In an unusual case of a medical side effect, a six-month-old boy’s dark brown eyes turned a deep blue after he received a common COVID-19 treatment.
According to the medical journal Frontiers in PediatricsThe baby, who lives in Thailand, was diagnosed with COVID-19 after suffering from fever and cough for a day. He had been treated with favipiravir for three days and the treatment helped improve COVID symptoms. However, just 18 hours after starting the medication, the infant’s mother noticed a change in her baby’s eye color, which transitioned from dark brown to bright blue.
The doctor ordered the treatment to be stopped after observing the color change, which returned to its original brown color five days after favipiravir was stopped.
No bluish discoloration was observed in other areas such as skin, nails or oral and nasal mucosa. Symptoms improved after 3 days of treatment with favipiravir. The pediatrician advised the patient to discontinue treatment due to favipiravir-induced corneal discolouration. normal color on day 5 after stopping the drug,” said the authors of the medical report.
It is worth noting that favipiravir, the antiviral treatment approved by the Thai Ministry of Health in 2022, is intended for children experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.
In a similar incident that occurred in 2021, a 20-year-old man in India reported the first occurrence of an unusual side effect to treatment. On the second day of treatment with favipiravir, his originally dark brown eyes had changed to a clear blue color.
In the conclusion of the report, the medical experts stated that “this case report highlights an unusual adverse effect of treatment with favipiravir in the youngest known patient to receive the drug for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. While favipiravir is currently the mainstay of oral antiviral treatment for children with COVID-19, its safety profile in developmental children is uncertain.”