New York
About 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to hospital.
Common Drug Reduces Coronavirus Deaths, Scientists Report
Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a “major breakthrough”.
Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital.
The results suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers who led the trials.
“This is a result that shows that if patients who have Covid-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost,” said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial, known as the RECOVERY trial.
“It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life,” he told reporters in an online briefing.
His co-lead investigator, Peter Horby, said dexamethasone was “the only drug that’s so far shown to reduce mortality – and it reduces it significantly.”
“It is a major breakthrough,” he said. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”
Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers say.
And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of Covid-19 patients.
The UK government has 200,000 courses of the drug in its stockpile and says the NHS will make dexamethasone available to patients.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a genuine case to celebrate “a remarkable British scientific achievement”, adding: “We have taken steps to ensure we have enough supplies, even in the event of a second peak.”
About 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to hospital.
Of those who are admitted, most also recover but some may need oxygen or mechanical ventilation.
And these are the high-risk patients dexamethasone appears to help.
The drug is already used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions, including arthritis, asthma and some skin conditions.
And it appears to help stop some of the damage that can happen when the body’s immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.
Dexamethasone is typically used to treat certain forms of arthritis, severe allergies and asthma, among other conditions, including certain types of cancer. Side effects can include upset stomach, headache, dizziness, insomnia and depression. GoodRx estimates the drug can cost as low as about $8.
In the United States, dexamethasone already has been used to treat some Covid-19 patients during the pandemic.
When told about the preliminary Recovery Trial results, Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, the regional director for critical care at Northwell Health, which owns 23 hospitals in New York, said to CNN, “We’ve used it for Covid from the beginning.”
Nick Cammack, the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator lead at Wellcome Trust in the UK, said in a written statement on Tuesday that the dexamethasone findings are a “major breakthrough.”
“This is a major breakthrough: dexamethasone is the first and only drug that has made a significant difference to patient mortality for COVID-19.
Potentially preventing 1 death in every 8 ventilated patients would be remarkable,” Cammack said in the statement.
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