A first drug found to save lives in Covid-19 patients. The World Health Organization on Tuesday hailed “the first proven treatment that reduces mortality in patients with Covid-19”.
Preliminary results from a UK randomized clinical trial show that a widely available drug called dexamethasone reduces the risk of dying from covid-19 by a third for ventilated patients and a fifth for those receiving oxygen.
Dexamethasone is a steroid used to reduce inflammation in various conditions, including skin diseases, allergies and asthma. It is one of a range of drugs tested as a covid-19 treatment in the RECOVERY trial, which recruited more than 11,500 patients from 175 NHS hospitals.
Dexamethasone is the first drug in the world to reduce mortality from covid-19.
“This is the first proven treatment that reduces mortality in patients with Covid-19 on oxygen or respirator assistance,” commented Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO ), in a press release.
“This is good news and I congratulate the British government, the University of Oxford and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this life-saving scientific breakthrough,” added the Director General ‘international body.
In the trial, 2104 covid-19 patients were randomly selected to receive dexamethasone and 4321 received standard care.
Preliminary results suggest that dexamethasone treatment could save a life for eight ventilated patients and one for 25 requiring oxygen.
“It is too early to say exactly why the trial has shown success in the use of dexamethasone, but it may be that steroids help critically ill patients by reducing inflammation in the lungs, allowing them to restore”, details the Financial Times.
Researchers suggest the drug could have saved up to 5,000 lives in the UK if it had been used to treat patients since the start of the pandemic, reports the BBC.
However, people should not run “Buy the medicine to take it home”, prevent the BBC, “Dexamethasone does not seem to help people who have milder symptoms and do not need respiratory assistance”.
Dexamethasone should only be taken if prescribed by a doctor.
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