WHO: dexamethasone study “breakthrough” in the fight against Covid-19 – News Augsburg, Allgäu, Ulm

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusImage: World Health Organization/AFP/archive / Christopher Black

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The world health organization (WHO) has welcomed the encouraging results of a British study on the treatment of Covid-19-patients with the active ingredient dexamethasone. It was a “life-saving scientific breakthrough,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the night to Wednesday in Geneva.

Dexamethasone, the first form of treatment, the death rate of respiration machines connected Covid-19-detected patients, dimensions of the sink was. Tedros spoke of the “great news” and congratulated the UK government.

Researchers led by a team at the University of Oxford had administered for the government-financed study, the widely available drug for ten days, more than 2000 with the Coronavirus-infected patients. Accordingly, dexamethasone reduced the mortality rate of the ventilator-dependent patient is 35 percent. For patients with only oxygen were administered, reduced the mortality rate by a fifth.

In patients with a milder disease course of dexamethasone, however, showed no effect. As a control, the researchers studied 4000 patients that were not treated with dexamethasone. Detailed Reviews of the clinical trial have not been published yet.

Dexamethasone is included in a variety of anti-inflammatory drugs. It is used to treat allergic reactions, rheumatoid Arthritis and Asthma. According to British researchers, the daily doses could prevent every eighth death in critically ill Covid patients.

The scientists celebrated the discovery as a “major breakthrough” in the fight against the novel Coronavirus, the disease brought. They emphasised that dexamethasone is readily available and inexpensive. The British government put the funds immediately to the list of standard procedures of the National health service NHS counter-Covid-19.

© 2020 AFP

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