According to a team of top British doctors, blood-thinning medications could make a significant contribution to saving the lives of coronavirus patients.
The new discovery raises hopes as medical professionals seek effective treatments for the killer bug that has killed more than 310,000 people worldwide.
Doctors in London made the discovery after discovering that the coronavirus caused potentially fatal blood clots in the lungs of critically ill patients.
NHS England is said to provide hospitals with new blood thinning tips that can save lives, reports The Telegraph.
The Royal Brompton Hospital team established the link between Covid-19 and blood clots in the lungs.
Using high-tech CT scans, they were able to determine that there was a lack of blood flow, which indicates clotting in small blood vessels.
Patients with severe coronavirus died from lung failure caused by lack of oxygen in the blood.
Low oxygen levels have also been reported in Covid 19 patients who are not yet breathless.
It is hoped that blood thinning removes these clots and may help lower mortality rates – with the death toll in the UK rising to 34,466.
Professor Peter Openshaw, who is a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergency, said: “This intravascular coagulation is a really bad turn of a turn that we have never seen with many other viruses.
“It somehow explains the rather extraordinary clinical picture that is observed when people become very hypoxic, very low in oxygen and not particularly breathless.
“That would fit into the fact that it has a blood vessel origin.”
Randomized clinical trials to test treatment in Covid-19 patients are reported to be accelerated by the government.
However, doctors have emphasized the need for careful blood thinning, as this can have fatal side effects.
The specialists said it should be used with a “personalized approach” and “start very early” to prevent the killer clots.
Dr. Brijesh Patel of the Royal Brompton Hospital said: “I think the majority of patients will receive significant therapeutic doses of blood thinners if we learn more about this disease.
“If these interventions in the blood are done properly, they will save lives.”
Dr. Patel added: “I think it is important to introduce blood thinners associated with Covid, but you have to do it right, otherwise you can do harm.”
His team examined 150 of the UK’s most seriously ill patients to determine the extent of coronavirus lung damage.
The team’s official results will be released next week as the race continues to try to beat Covid-19.
NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens said hospitalizations in England had halved since the virus peaked.
He said the NHS has “become the biggest challenge in its 71-year history,” but added that the country was “not out of the woods yet”.
The government has now drawn up a roadmap to get Britain out of the block. The first measures will be relaxed this week.
However, the World Health Organization warns of a second wave of corona viruses in Europe if the blockage is loosened too quickly.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the panel’s regional director, said that governments should be careful about lifting restrictions and that now is the “time for preparation, not celebration”.
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