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(Reuters) – Doctors who were not involved in President Donald Trump’s treatment for COVID-19 said the fact that he started taking dexamethasone, a generic steroid that is widely used in other diseases to reduce inflammation, is evidence of that your case is serious.
Trump’s medical team said Sunday that the president began taking the steroid after experiencing low oxygen levels, but his condition was improving and he could be discharged from the hospital on Monday.
“What I heard in the press conference description suggested that the president has a more serious illness than the generally optimistic picture painted,” said Dr. Daniel McQuillen, infectious disease specialist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts. .
The American Society for Infectious Diseases says that dexamethasone is beneficial in people with critical or severe COVID-19 who require additional oxygen. But studies show that the drug is not helpful, and may even be harmful, in people with a milder case of the disease.
Doctors who have been treating COVID-19 patients for months said Trump, who surprised his followers outside the hospital by passing in a caravan Sunday night, could still be discharged from the hospital. Trump returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after the short trip.
“You are not going to go to a house where there is no medical care. There is basically a hospital in the White House,” said Dr. Walid Gellad, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Trump, 74, was airlifted to the hospital on Friday hours after announcing that he had tested positive for coronavirus infection. While in the White House, the president received an infusion of an experimental antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
If Trump no longer needs supplemental oxygen and can return to normal activities, his doctors could discharge him from the hospital, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
“The more important question would be: is there a risk of deterioration or is it on a good track?” he said.
COVID-19 is often characterized by having two phases: the viral infection itself and, in some cases, an overreaction of the body’s immune system that can cause organ damage. “People walk around for up to a week … then it all goes downhill very quickly,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of infectious diseases at UC Davis Health in California. “It’s always hard to predict who that is going to happen to.”
Doctors said that COVID-19 patients who have responded well to treatment can leave the hospital relatively quickly, but will still need to be closely monitored.
“Some people with COVID-19 develop worsening symptoms, shortness of breath, and other complications about a week after they first develop symptoms,” said Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Dr. David Battinelli, medical director of Northwell Health of New York, said it is “completely plausible” that Trump could be discharged Monday, but warned that a full recovery would take time.
“It would be highly unlikely that he would be away from home and on the field in less than 14 days,” he said.
(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Diane Craft)
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