What is dexamethasone? A drug that boosts Covid-19 survival chance
A cheap and widely used steroid called dexamethasone has become
the first drug shown to be able to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what
scientists said is a “major breakthrough” in the coronavirus pandemic.
Trial
results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce
inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, raeduced death rates by around
a third among the most severely ill of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital.
The
preliminary results suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in
patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers who
led the trials. The researchers said they would work to publish the full
details of the trial as soon as possible, with some scientists saying they
wished to review the evidence for themselves.
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