El Paso health leaders use regional benchmarks in decisions over highly-sought infusion treatment

EL PASO, Texas– Due to a national shortage, The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said this week that its regional infusion center in El Paso, as well as those in other cities in Texas, have exhausted the supply of sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's effective against the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

The federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies and it will not be able ship additional supply of sotrovimab to Texas until sometime in January.

Wanda Helgesen, executive director of the regional healthcare group BorderRAC, said that within the last couple of weeks sotrovimab has been distributed to Providence Memorial Hospital's infusion center and to the Regional Infusion Center. 

Helgesen said the guidance they’ve been given is to keep track of the cases and to determine when it's appropriate for them to administer the new medication - or other monoclonal medication that has been available- even though it has not been shown to be effective against Omicron.  

She said they are looking closely at the positivity rate as well as the number of new cases being seen to help guide them as to when to make the decision to transition to the new medication. 

“In other parts of the state, some of them have already converted to only giving the new medication, in those areas they are seeing a big spike in their number of cases, and so we are using them as our guide to watch our new case load as well as our positivity rate, said Helgesen. “So, we’re using those same benchmarks to help guide us as we move through yet another Covid opportunity to our health care system.” 

Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Dr. Edward Michelson, said that when you get tested for Covid-19, the results do not tell you which variant of Covid you have.  

In order to get that information, the samples need to be sent to a lab to identify which mutation of the virus you have. 

Michelson said that there is little to no ability to do that here in El Paso, and said only a small number of samples are sent out for testing, which is about a 7-day process for results. 

Because of that, he said, the decision by health leaders is to make decisions based on what is happening throughout the region. 

He said the guidelines medical officials are given suggest that once the community reaches 80-percent of all Covid cases involving the Omicron variant, they should switch to only use of sotrovimab for infusions. 

"Now fortunately here in El Paso, as I look at our numbers and our positivity rate and as I look at our hospitalization rate, I think we're primarily seeing Delta and I bet it's at least 70 or 80-percent Delta still, so we are safe continuing to use our old monoclonal antibodies. I know however that is going to change in the coming weeks," said Michelson.

Officials said medical leaders are planning to meet in the coming days to offer advice and local guidelines to the public on the issue.