FINALLY GOOD NEWS FOR INFACTED COVID-19 ,This medicine saves a *life* for Dh161.

Coronavirus: Dexamethasone reduces the mortality rate of (critically) ill patients.

Why is the medical world excited about it? Because the cheap and widely available steroid is a potential life-saving drug for critically ill COVID-19 patients. That’s what the researchers at the University of Oxford discovered.

In their study, the drug has been found to reduce the mortality of the sickest patients. Which is more like virtually pulling them away from the doorstep of death.

The medication is of no use to corona patients with mild symptoms, but that doesn’t matter. They don’t require hospitalisation. No medicines too, as their treatment is more symptomatic.

Critically ill patients

COVID-19 patients are generally hospitalised only when their lungs are affected. They will require assisted breathing. A patient on a ventilator is at a critical stage. So when a drug reduces deaths by one-third, that is enough cause for jubilation. It’s a life-saver! Until now, there have been no effective drugs to treat these dying patients. The drug is also found to be effective for patients who need oxygen support.

Researchers around the world have been working to find a cure for the highly contagious virus, SARS-CoV-2, which has infected more than 8 million people and killed nearly 450,000. Most of the attention was focused on repurposing existing antiviral drugs to reduce the turnaround time since they would have some of the necessary approvals. Avigan belongs to this group; versions of this drug are approved as COVID-19 treatment in China and Russia.

Amid this frantic research, comes dexamethasone. It’s no antiviral. It’s a corticosteroid, a synthetic one (The adrenal gland in the body naturally produces corticosteroids). And it’s affordable and readily available in most countries, although the trade names vary. Impoverished countries with COVID-10 patients will enormously benefit from that.

The steroid has been around for more than half a century. It’s been used to reduce inflammation and treat a range of conditions, including arthritis, asthma, immune system disorders, allergic reactions, cancer and some skin conditions. Which means it’s been in regular use and its side-effects and contraindications are well known. That allows physicians to take the necessary precautions before prescribing it. Hospitals in Britain have already begun to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients with dexamethasone from Tuesday.

How dexamethasone fights COVID-19

Three-fourth of the patients admitted to hospitals receive some form of oxygen. The more critical ones are put on ventilators.

What is the RECOVERY trial

The RECOVERY trial is a large, randomised controlled trial of possible treatments for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Over 11,500 patients have been randomised to the following treatment arms, or no additional treatment:

* Lopinavir-Ritonavir (commonly used to treat HIV)

* Dexamethasone (a type of steroid used to reduce inflammation)

* Hydroxychloroquine (which has now been stopped due to lack of efficacy)

* Azithromycin (a commonly used antibiotic)

* Tocilizumab (an anti-inflammatory treatment given by injection)

* Convalescent plasma (collected from donors who have recovered from COVID-19 and contains antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.