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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.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @08:58PM (16 children)
Don't these type of steroids generally *weaken* someone's immune system?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:06PM
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30317-2/fulltext [thelancet.com]
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"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:30PM (8 children)
That's why you inhale bleach first, to get rid of the problems that your weakened immune system can't handle, or at least that's what I heard from some sort of stable genius.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by RS3 on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:32AM (7 children)
Bleach treatment only works in orange people. The mechanism isn't clearly understood, but research indicates it's due to the bleach neutralizing the harmful effects of the orange pigment chemicals.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:23PM
Does bleach work for the yellow people [nymag.com] too?
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:04AM (5 children)
Why did someone mod me "flamebait"? It was 100% humor. Is that the reward for trying to bring levity?
This is exactly what I hate about this stupid mod system. You try to be a nice guy and you get slapped in the face, and NO idea why.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:37PM (4 children)
Perhaps, because they took offense at your vague reference to the President of the United States of America? I know it's a tried and true tradition to make fun of the President, but some people are tired of all the Orange haired one kinds of remarks. Also, sarcasm is lost in print.
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"
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:03PM (2 children)
Thank you, seriously, for taking the time to write. Your explanation makes sense, but I'm struggling to get myself into the game here. When I don't understand someone's post, or just disagree with it, I leave it alone. It has to be pretty bad before I downmod- true troll or flamebait, not just because I don't like it. I guess I have to grow a bigger and meaner ego. I'll just start slinging downmods and see how I feel about it and see if it enhances this site. None for you of course.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:18PM (1 child)
'eh, I try to be careful with my mod points and correct where I think something's been modded poorly. I also try to make sure I have enough points left, so when I get to the last article and there's an obvious troll, I have points to mod it so. Things seem to have improved greatly from a while ago, though. What with the random junk posting that was happening for a while.
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"
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:02PM
Yes, agreed on all points. You're one of the good ones. As much as I'd love to live in a libertarian utopia, reality is that there are varying degrees of evil in people and we either need laws and enforcement, or good people will get hurt (depending on your definition of "good").
I should start a journal discussion about the mod system. The recent "meta" discussion brought out some great ideas, including that coders are up to their ears in life so if any, changes won't happen soon.
Disappointment is born of expectations. A saying I say and write occasionally. Much easier said than done. I came here expecting (the problem) a (much?) better environment than slashdot. No need to repeat the whole story and history, right? Well, this place has been much worse than slashdot over the past year+, and by "worse" I mean 1) ton's of AC comments, 2) tons of AC troll, flamebait, and just plain idiocy, 3) flame throwing, 4) ad hominem and general attacking verbiage, 5) mod system abuse, and I'm sure I could list more.
It's sad, for me, because I'd love to have intelligent civil discussions like sometimes happen here. I only want to contribute in a positive way, but I'm very often afraid to post anything (so I usually don't, when I would otherwise). It's sad because there are some truly awesome people here. I think there are a couple of people who don't like me, for reasons beyond my understanding, and downmod me rather than be adult and post a contrarian response. A couple of logged-in people, and a couple of ACs have attacked me using language that indicates they're focused on me- they said so. I have many ideas for mod system reform, and one would be for people to know who modded them and how. As I've posted before, this place has turned into a biker bar brawl. Sad.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:06PM
PS: I grew weary of all of the Trump bashing and belittling long ago; again, I was just trying to be funny. I absolutely dispute the label "flamebait" for my post. Someday maybe I'll start yet another similar site, but with a radically different mod system (if at all...)
(Score: 5, Informative) by HiThere on Tuesday June 16 2020, @09:56PM
Weaken is a biased term, but it *is* acting to suppress the immune system (not quite the same thing) to minimize a cytokinetic storm. You *can* think of that as weakening the immune system, but that's not quite the right slant on it. Regulating it is better.
That said, you wouldn't want to use this treatment during the early part of the infection, as it would just be dangerous and not helpful. You want it as the immune system starts going into overdrive.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday June 16 2020, @10:30PM (3 children)
It's pretty much the same as the infamous "Trump drug". Weakens immune system, used for ages by old folks with arthritis.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:51PM (2 children)
It has not dissimilar effect in that it reduces inflammation. But no, it's not the same at all in terms of what it does and how it acts. It's not the same in terms of risk of cardiac complications or reduction of bone formation.
Your statement is about the same as saying COBOL or Fortran, same thing. Both programming languages, used for ages by old programmers with math needs.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday June 17 2020, @07:52PM (1 child)
Old progeammers, yes.
Cobol for math needs? I'm doubtful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:20AM
The number one use for COBOL is financial calculations. You don't get more "math" than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2020, @02:46PM
Generally, yes. It interrupts the immune response of inflammation, increases serum sugar levels, and long term may train the body to be weaker to immune response, not to mention interrupts bone formation (osteoporosis). But in a respiratory disease one can be more concerned with inflammation reducing oxygen availability and oxygen transport usually wins.