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Life-Saving Coronavirus Drug 'Major Breakthrough'

posted by martyb on Tuesday June 16 2020, @07:01PM   
from the dex-bonus dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:

Life-saving coronavirus drug 'major breakthrough':

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 if they also work for coronavirus.

[...] The drug is already used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions, and it appears that it helps stop some of the damage that can happen when the body's immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.

[...] In the trial, led by a team from Oxford University, around 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone and were compared with more than 4,000 who did not receive the drug.

For patients on ventilators, it cut the risk of death from 40% to 28%. For patients needing oxygen, it cut the risk of death from 25% to 20%.

Chief investigator Prof Peter Horby said: "This is the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality - and it reduces it significantly. It's a major breakthrough."

[...] Dexamethasone has been used since the early 1960s to treat a wide range of conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

[...] The drug is given intravenously in intensive care, and in tablet form for less seriously ill patients. So far, the only other drug proven to benefit Covid patients is remdesivir, an antiviral treatment which has been used for Ebola.

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Original Submission

• Re:Serious Question (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:06PM

  by Freeman (732) on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:06PM (#1008843) Journal

  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30317-2/fulltext [thelancet.com]

  Corticosteroids were widely used during the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV1
  and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV,2
  and are being used in patients with 2019-nCoV in addition to other therapeutics.3
  However, current interim guidance from WHO on clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection when novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection is suspected (released Jan 28, 2020) advises against the use of corticosteroids unless indicated for another reason.4
  [...]
  Acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome are partly caused by host immune responses. Corticosteroids suppress lung inflammation but also inhibit immune responses and pathogen clearance. In SARS-CoV infection, as with influenza, systemic inflammation is associated with adverse outcomes.12
  In SARS, inflammation persists after viral clearance.13,14
  Pulmonary histology in both SARS and MERS infections reveals inflammation and diffuse alveolar damage,15
  with one report suggesting haemophagocytosis.16
  Theoretically, corticosteroid treatment could have a role to suppress lung inflammation.

  So, yes, it inhibits immune responses. Though, may be useful in preventing lung damage. So, definitely not a preventative treatment, but something that might be useful to negate harm as the original post is saying.

  --
  Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Informative=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3