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.”
The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say. The drug was tested and it has yielded positive results.
Patient on ventilators who have been known to have a high death rate were saved by a third and those on oxygen were saved by a fifth.
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Researchers believe the drug could have saved over 5,000 lives had it been used earlier in the UK.
The National Health Services (NHS) will make dexamethasone available to patients.
Meanwhile the World Health Organisation has welcomed the administration of the drug on patients as a major scientific breakthrough in the fight against Covid-19.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that show dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19. For patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth, according to preliminary findings shared with WHO.” the UN body said in a statement.