An inexpensive and widely available steroid is an effective treatment for COVID-19 patients, researchers have found.
Dexamethasone, a low-dose steroid treatment, reduces the risk of death by one-third for COVID-19 patients on ventilators. For patients on oxygen, the risk of death is reduced by one-fifth.
Researchers at Oxford University gave dexamethasone to 2,000 hospital patients and compared their results with about 4,000 patients who did not receive the steroid.
“This is the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality — and it reduces it significantly. It’s a major breakthrough,” chief investigator Peter Horby told the BBC.
The steroid is already used to treat conditions such as asthma, allergic reactions, and inflammation in various parts of the body.
So far, remdesivir is the only other drug shown to treat COVID-19. It can reduce the duration of the virus’s symptoms from 15 to 11 days, but it has not been shown to reduce the death rate. Unlike dexamethasone, remdesivir is not widely available.
