{"id":103590,"date":"2020-06-16T16:28:19","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103590"},"modified":"2020-06-16T16:28:19","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:28:19","slug":"coronavirus-dexamethasone-proves-first-life-saving-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/16\/coronavirus-dexamethasone-proves-first-life-saving-drug\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Roberts<\/span>Health editor, BBC News online<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments<\/a> to see if they also work for coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/health-53061281<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Media captionKatherine Millbank spent 15 days in hospital and was put on the drug trial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK government has 200,000 courses of the drug in its stockpile and says the NHS will make dexamethasone available to patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a genuine case to celebrate “a remarkable British scientific achievement”, adding: “We have taken steps to ensure we have enough supplies, even in the event of a second peak.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Medical Officer for England Prof Chris Whitty said it would save lives around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of those who are admitted, most also recover but some may need oxygen or mechanical ventilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these are the high-risk patients dexamethasone appears to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drug is already used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions, including arthritis, asthma and some skin conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it appears to help stop some of the damage that can happen when the body’s immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This over-reaction, a cytokine storm<\/a>, can be deadly.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online A cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus. The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say. The drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}