The World Health Organization (WHO) has welcomed the preliminary clinical trial results from the United Kingdom that show dexamethasone can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19.
UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced that British scientists have made the biggest breakthrough yet in the treatment of coronavirus with a drug proven to reduce the risk of death.
The drug, dexamethasone, is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus. it cuts the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators and for those on oxygen, it cuts by a fifth.
Researchers believe had the drug been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.
The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, commenting on the milestone achieved said “This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support. This is great news and I congratulate the Government of the UK, the University of Oxford and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough.”
According to WHO, the researchers shared initial insights about the results of the trial with them and are looking forward to the full data analysis in the coming days.
WHO stated that they “will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of this intervention.”
Also, the organization said a clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in treating COVID-19.
Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations, and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries.
