Tooting: TikTok star is first to receive new lifesaving Covid-19 treatment at St George's Hospital

A 17-year-old TikTok star has become one of the first people to receive a new Covid-19 treatment at St George's Hospital

Max Khadar was born with a heart condition which means he is immunosuppressed, which puts him in the high-risk category for Covid-19 and means he cannot be vaccinated.

Max - who has over 552,000 TikTok followers and has amassed nearly 24million likes on his videos - was offered a lifesaving drug called Ronapreve, which was only approved last week.

This ground-breaking antibody treatment is offered to vulnerable patients such as Max who test positive but are unable to build their own immune response to fight the disease due to being immunosuppressed.

The TikTok star, whose account name is @maxkhandarr, was offered the drug on Friday and had a big message of thanks to the NHS and St George's.

"I feel very thankful, very grateful and, actually, very special to be the first at St George's and one the first in the UK to receive this treatment," Max said.

"I've been looked after by the NHS ever since I was born due to my condition, so I'd like to say thank you to all NHS staff for caring for people like me who are vulnerable and need that additional support, particularly at the moment with Covid-19."

The treatment was recently following results from the RECOVERY trial which St George's recruited patients onto.

The evidence suggests that hat the treatment reduced hospital stays by four days and risk of death by a fifth.

St George's chief medical officer, Dr Richard Jennings, spoke of his pride to announce the use of Ronapreve.

He said: "Ronapreve reduces the risk of dying for older patients and those who are more vulnerable – and, importantly, it also speeds up recovery time.

"We are very proud to be one of the first hospitals in the UK to roll out this new form of treatment, after having undertaken the RECOVERY trial at St George's too."

Since the beginning of the pandemic, St George's and St George's, University of London have been leaders in amongst covid-19 research, having undertaken 60 covid-19 studies and recruited 7019 participants into trials.

Ronapreve is the first neutralising antibody medicine specifically designed to treat Covid-19 to be officially authorised for use in the UK. The drug is administered via a drip and works by binding to the virus' spike protein, stopping it from being able to infect the body's cells.

Thousands of patients across the UK will benefit from this treatment once fully rolled out across the UK but it doesn't reduce the need for members of the public to be vaccinated and St George's continues to offer the jab to staff and patients, St George's Hospital has said.

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