Dexamethasone: The first life-saving corona virus drug

Dexamethasone a drug that is commonly used to treat conditions like arthritis, allergic reactions, breathing problems, and other conditions, has been found to be effective in reducing the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients.

Dexamethasone on Trial

The drug is part of RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) which is dubbed as the biggest trial that will test existing treatments and see if it works on fighting COVID-19.

The trial started in March 2020 and on June 8 the dexamethasone recruitment of patients was halted as it was deemed by the Trial Steering Committee to have reached sufficient patients to establish whether the drug has meaningful benefits.

The Dexamethasone Trial Methodology

During the trial, there were a total of 2,104 patients randomly selected to receive 6mg of dexamethasone daily for 10 days. The delivery of the drug is either by mouth or by intravenous injection. The results were compared to 4,321 randomly selected patients who received only the usual care.

The Dexamethasone Trial Result

According to the RECOVERY and Oxford University Release. Dexamethasone has reduced deaths by 1/3 to patients who are on ventilators. While for patients who are only receiving oxygen, the drug reduced deaths by 1/5. While for patients who do not require respiratory support there was no benefit found.

According to the study:

Based on these results, 1 death would be prevented by treatment of around 8 ventilated patients or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone

What does this mean?

Dexamethasone, when used as a treatment for those who are on ventilators and those requiring oxygen due to the COVID-19 disease, reduces the chances of death. This is the first drug the came out of the RECOVERY trial to have shown positive results. Because this drug is cheap, it can also be used in third world countries. 

In the statement of Professor Peter Horby,  one of the Chief Investigators of the trial and a professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, he said that:

“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. This is an extremely welcome result. The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to
save lives worldwide.”

Source: Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY)