Coronavirus: dexamethasone, a powerful steroid, could save the most serious cases

In the large Recovery clinical trial, a powerful anti-inflammatory, dexamethasone, has shown very encouraging results in reducing the risk of death in patients with serious respiratory complications. Already available and inexpensive, this drug, already administered in the United Kingdom, should be used as a basic treatment to treat Covid-19.

A drug in the steroid family , dexamethasone, reduces mortality by a third in the patients most seriously affected by Covid-19, according to the first results of a large clinical trial qualified Tuesday as “major breakthrough”.

One death in eight could be avoided thanks to this treatment in patients placed on artificial ventilation.

“Dexamethasone is the first medication that we observe that improves survival in Covid-19 cases,” said the leaders of the British Recovery test. According to them, “One death in eight could be avoided thanks to this treatment in patients placed on artificial ventilation”.

Dexamethasone as a basic treatment

“This is a major step forward in the quest for new ways to treat Covid patients,” said Prof. Stephen Powis, medical director of the NHS, the British public health service, in another statement.

“The benefit in terms of survival is significant in patients who are sick enough to need oxygen , for whom dexamethasone should now become the basic treatment , said one of the leaders of the Recovery trial, Dr Peter Horby, of the University of Oxford. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, already on the market, and can be used immediately to save lives around the world .”

This drug is already used in many indications for its powerful anti- inflammatory effect . In the Recovery trial, 2,104 patients received this treatment (orally or intravenously) for 10 days. Compared to 4,321 other patients who had not received it, the researchers determined that the treatment reduced mortality by a third in patients placed on artificial ventilation.

In addition, mortality was reduced by a fifth in less severely ill patients who received oxygen through a mask without intubating them. On the other hand, the treatment did not show any benefit for patients who did not require respiratory assistance.

In the wake of the announcement, the British government said the treatment would be used immediately to treat the affected patients.