With so many ongoing vaccine trials and drug testing for Covid-19 going around, the researchers and doctors have been able to spear through a new breakthrough.
A low dose of the steroid treatment Dexamethasone has been proven as a major breakthrough in the fight against the novel coronavirus. With the found efficacy of the drug, it is now part of the biggest trial testing existing treatments to see how well they work in helping patients recover from Covid-19.
The researchers found that the drug helped reduce the risks of death in the patients on ventilators by a third. For the patients on oxygen, it cut down the death risks by a fifth.
The researchers further report that had this drug been used for the treatment of the patients from the beginning in the UK, it is likely that over 5000 lives could have been saved.
Given how accessible and affordable the drug is, earlier research could have made it easier for the poorer countries to fight the ongoing battle with Covid-19.
The UK government reported that they have around 200,000 courses of the drug and the fact that NHS will make the drug accessible to the patients for faster recovery.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson applauded the discovery stating that this is indeed a time to celebrate for the British people and the whole world around. He further asserted that they have enough stocks to tackle in case a second resurgence of the virus occurs.
Chief Medical Officer for England Prof Chris Whitty even asserted that this could help save lives across the world.
As per the statistics, 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to the hospital. Of the ones admitted, majority of the patients recover and some need be admitted to the intensive care or put on ventilation.
And the latter group of patients is who can benefit from the drug. Dexamethasone has been found helpful in reducing the inflammation in several other conditions including arthritis, asthma and a few skin conditions too.
The drug has also been found helpful in warding off the risks of cytokine storm, which is very ghastly if undiagnosed.
In the research conducted by the researchers from the Oxford University, they tested the drug on 2000 patients infected with Covid-19 and compared the results with 4000 patients who were not.
The researchers found that the drug helped reduce the risks of death for patients on ventilators from 40% to 28%.
In the case of the patients on oxygen supply, it cut the death risk from 25% to 20%.
“This is the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality – and it reduces it significantly. It’s a major breakthrough,” said Chief investigator Prof Peter Horby.
Horby further said that it calls for 10 days of treatment with Dexamethasone and the overall treatment would just cost 5 pounds for each patient, which essentially leads to 35 pounds to save a life, a lot lesser than some of the standard treatment options at the moment.
The drug is available worldwide and is easily accessible. If a patient needs the assistance of the drug, it is necessary that the doctors do administer them.
But, the one drawback that Horby and his team found was that the drug didn’t do much for the patients exhibiting milder symptoms or the ones who didn’t need support breathing.
The Recovery Trial that has been ongoing since March also tapped into the effectiveness of the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine which has further been ditched amidst all the safety concerns.
On the other hand, remdesivir, which is another drug that has been in trial has been found to help shorten the recovery time and stay at the hospital for the patients and has been made accessible for the patients in UK.
While the researchers have been chasing some of the expensive treatment options and such, the first drug for Covid-19 touted to help reduce the death risk is not a new or expensive drug but an old and cheap steroid.
This means good news for the patients across the world because this means that the treatment option would be a lot more accessible to people across the world. This was one of the reasons why the trial was so rushed because the implications of it were quite effective globally.
Dexamethasone is a drug that has been in use since early 1960s for the treatment of a wide range of diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.
According to the evidence till now, 50% of the Covid-19 patients on ventilators have not recovered well from the disease. So, cutting this risk by a third would effectively help the people around.
The drug is injected intravenously in the serious patients and in the tablet form to the patients who have mild symptoms.
While remdisivir has been the only proven effective drug for Covid-19 so far, it seems like Dexamethasone does have improved benefits in comparison. The former helps reduce the hospital stay time from 15 to 11 days but the latter has been lifesaving in severe cases.
Further studies need to be done to get more insights on the mode of action and such.
