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NEW YORK (AP) – 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 widely used in other diseases to reduce inflammation, is the evidence. stronger so far that your case may be serious.
Trump’s medical team said on Sunday (October 4) that the president began taking the steroid after experiencing low oxygen levels, but that his condition was improving and he could be discharged from the hospital on Monday.
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“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.
Since the patient is 74 years old, overweight and possibly at high risk for complications, “they were aggressive at first,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of infectious diseases at UC Davis Health in California.
He and other doctors who have been treating COVID-19 patients for months said Trump, who surprised his supporters outside the hospital by passing in a caravan Sunday night, could still be released 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 was taken 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 that is being studied for early infections. On Saturday, the president began a five-day course of remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug, sold by Gilead Sciences.
Doctors have said that both drugs make sense early in the course of the disease to prevent it from getting worse, but dexamethasone is generally reserved for people whose condition has deteriorated.
“We give dexamethasone to patients who need supplemental oxygen,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
If Trump no longer requires supplemental oxygen and can return to normal activities, his doctors could release him from the hospital, he said.
“The more important question would be: is there a risk of deterioration or is it on a good track?” Dr. Adalja said.
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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 putter for up to a week … then everything goes downhill really fast,” Dr. Cohen said. “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.
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