Dexamethasone, an inexpensive and available drug, can help save the lives of critically ill patients infected with the corona virus.
Experts in Britain say that the use of this drug in small amounts has come as a big success in the fight against Coronavirus.
Patients who have to resort to ventilator due to falling seriously ill, their risk of dying is decreased by about 1/3rd due to this drug. Those who are in need of oxygen, the risk of dying is reduced by 1/5th.
Dexamethasone is a drug used in the treatment of arthritis and asthma since the 1960s.
Half of Coronavirus patients who need ventilators are unable to survive, so reducing this risk by 1/3 is a huge success.
Researchers estimate that if this drug were used in Britain from the earliest stages of infection, then about 5000 people could have been saved. Since this drug is also cheap, it can prove beneficial for poor countries.
This drug is also a part of the test that is being done to check the existing medicines to see if these medicines are effective on the coronavirus.
Helpful for high risk patients
Of the 20 patients of Corona, 19 are recovering without hospitalization. Most of the patients who are admitted in the hospital are also recovering, but there are some patients who are in need of oxygen or ventilators. This medicine helps patients with similar high risk.
This drug has already been used to reduce inflammation and now it seems that it is going to help the body's immune system in fighting the corona virus. When the body's immunity system reacts more actively then such a condition is called cytokine storm, it can be fatal.
A team from Oxford University gave this medicine to 2000 patients admitted to hospitals and then compared it to 4000 patients who were not given medicines.
Patients who were alive with ventilators reduced the risk of dying from 40% to 28% of the effect of this drug, and those who needed oxygen reduced their chances of dying from 25% to 20%.
Professor Peter Horby, the lead researcher of the team, said, "This is the only drug that has resulted in a reduction in mortality and this reduction is so significant that it is significant. It is a great success."
Professor Martin Landre, another researcher, says that with the help of this drug, you can save the life of one out of every eight living with the help of ventilator. And also out of the patients who are in need of oxygen, you can save one patient for every 20-25 patients.
He says, "This is a clearly helpful drug. The cost of a ten-day treatment of dexamethasone is about five hundred rupees for a patient. So a patient's life can be saved for just three and a half thousand rupees." And this medicine is found everywhere. "
However, this medicine doesn't provide any help to the patients of Coronavirus who have mild symptoms.
Among the drugs on trial, the malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine was also one, but because of this, there is a risk of heart problems and life.
Another drug is Remedisivier, with the help of which it has been seen that it is helping people to recover quickly from corona infection.
good article