A cheap steroid that is widely available can help patients with severe cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Researchers who conducted a controlled trial of various treatments said in a preliminary report released Friday that dexamethasone appeared to help patients recover from severe cases of COVID-19.
“In hospitalized patients with COVID-19, use of dexamethasone resulted in a 28-day lower mortality among those who were receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or random oxygen only, but not among those who did not receive respiratory support,” the researchers said. in the report, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Two groups were analyzed: 2,104 patients who received the steroid and 4,321 who received standard care.
About 23 percent of the patients in the first group died, compared to 25.7 percent of the patients in the other group, within 28 days of their random assignment to one of the populations.
The incidence of death was 29.3 percent among patients with invasive mechanical ventilation and who received dexamethasone. Patients receiving standard care and receiving ventilation experienced a 41.4 percent incidence of death.
Among those who received oxygen but not invasive ventilation, the dexamethasone-treated group had an incidence of death of 23.3 percent, compared to 26.2 percent in the group who received usual care.
The incidence of death was higher in the dexamethasone group among those who did not receive respiratory assistance.
Dexamethasone is a glucocorticoid, a type of hormone that reduces inflammation and suppresses the immune system.
The research was conducted as part of the RECUPERATION trial, a national trial in the UK aimed at analyzing possible treatments for COVID-19. The document included complete results from the dexamethasone arm; The researchers announced the favorable result last month, but did not release much data.
The trial was funded by the University of Oxford, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Medical Research Council, among others.
Also last month, researchers said they found no clinical benefit in hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial, against COVID-19. There were also no clinical benefits found for lopinavir-ritonavir, a commonly used combination used primarily against HIV.
Other arms of the trial include analysis of tocilzumab, an anti-inflammatory; convalescent plasma, or plasma collected from donors recovered from COVID-19; and azithromycin, an antibiotic that has been widely used in conjunction with hydroxychloroquine.
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