St. Luke’s Miners Campus introduced a powerful weapon Tuesday for treating people with the COVID-19 virus: a Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Clinic. Monoclonal antibody therapy at St. Luke’s has helped hospitals in the greater Lehigh Valley region avoid being overwhelmed during the current surge, allowing certain high-risk patients to recover quickly in the comfort of their own homes.

Granted emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, monoclonal antibodies block the virus’s attachment and entry into human cells. Infusion has been found to be particularly effective in preventing the need for hospitalization in select, higher-risk patients, including those who are 65 years of age or older and whose infection, identified early, does not yet require supplemental oxygen.

Infusions will be provided two days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This novel therapeutic option is further proof of St. Luke’s commitment to providing innovative care to the rural populations we serve,” says Wendy Lazo, St. Luke’s Miners president.

Since last fall, St. Luke’s University Health Network has been operating two other clinics where monoclonal antibodies are infused: St. Luke’s Easton and St. Luke’s Warren. With the addition of the Miners facility, the network expects to infuse its 1,000th patient by the end of February.

Infectious disease specialist Peter Ender, MD, who helps run the COVID-19 treatment programs at SLUHN, says, “Monoclonal antibodies are an important outpatient therapy that we know has benefit in keeping people out of the hospital.”

St. Luke’s is the leader in monoclonal antibody treatment in Pennsylvania. Unlike St. Luke’s, most hospitals in Pennsylvania and across the country have not taken full advantage of their allocations of monoclonal antibodies. St. Luke’s is proud to have made this important weapon in the fight against COVID-19 accessible to residents of the Lehigh Valley and now those in Schuylkill and Carbon counties and the surrounding regions.

A paramedic in Pennsylvania and New Jersey offers one example of how MAB treatment works. The 52-year-old Lehigh Valley man came down with COVID-19 symptoms on Christmas Day. The fever, cough, headache and body aches alerted the veteran first responder that he was COVID-sick, and a test confirmed what he dreaded to hear. But within less than a week, the patient had received an infusion of the MAB monoclonal antibodies at the St. Luke’s Easton Campus. The next morning, he felt better already: headache gone, increased energy but still with a slight cough (he has asthma).

Patients will need a referral for the infusion from their primary care physician. Patients arriving at the Miners hospital for MAB treatment should call the infusion nurse at 570-645-1801 to be escorted into the clinic. Parking is available in front of the ambulance entrance of the Emergency Department.

MAB recipients should plan to spend approximately four hours at the clinic and no visitors are permitted to accompany a patient into the clinic.

Patients are advised to bring something to occupy their time for four hours: such as a book, iPad, phone, headphones. They are reminded to bring a mask, which must be worn for the entire duration of the treatment. The clinic will have light refreshments and snacks available.

St. Luke’s Miners is located at 360 W. Ruddle St., Coaldale. For more information, call 1-866-STLUKES, option 4.