Dexamethasone: the light of hope for Covid-19 patients

It's an extraordinary and welcoming moment that we can say something positive about Covid-19 treatment. A week ago, no life-saving drug was confirmed, but now we have dexamethasone. It can reduce death risk up to one-third for patients on a ventilator and 20% for those who are on oxygen. 

It has been made possible by the persistence and accord of a team from Oxford University and the cooperation from hospitals across the United Kingdom, the approval of thousands of patients and their families.

Dexamethasone is a part of a study named 'recovery'. The medical trials usually take time. Sometimes it lasts months, sometimes it lasts several years, involving hundreds or up to thousands of patients. But this trial named recovery lasts only nine days, involving 11500 patients from 175 hospitals across the United Kingdom.

It was necessary to show some speed before the number of patients and workload on doctors increased. Remember that the United Kingdom is one of the most affected countries by the corona virus in Europe. That also means that there was the number of patients required for the immense medical trial for the treatment.

This medical trial was led by Professor Peter Horby, who have spent many years in finding out and learning the cause of epidemic by an unknown bacterium. He said that he was so disappointed with the previous H1N1 swine flu, had resulted in a "massive failure to properly administer the drug" he said he had zero evidence that any treatment was effective.

His co-researcher professor Martin Landre and Horby; were determined that this would not be the case with the Covid-19.  He kept this trial very simple. He would try very few experimental drugs and try to find an answer to only one question “if it can reduce the death risk?”.

One of these was the low-dose steroid drug dexamethasone. It has been in use since the 1960's. In the beginning, it was considered as dangerous from the start of the pandemic. It was discouraged by most of the international guidelines.

In the beginning, there were concerns about dexamethasone that it could intensify the disease or increase its duration. Professor Landre said, “the fact was, no one knew if dexamethasone would be beneficial or harmful”. There was a lack of medical trials, and only then could the tangible result be achieved. This means that the condition of patients dosed with dexamethasone should be compared with the patients without dexamethasone.

The corona virus has two different stages. Most people go through the first stage, where the virus enters the body. But in some cases, the disease begins to change after a week of infection. The overreaction of the immune system causes inflammation. At this stage, it is not the corona virus but the immune system’s overreaction, which causes damage to the lungs.

The World Health Organization called it a “life-saving breakthrough” as it is affordable and is widely used for many diseases around the world.

The “recovery” trial also considering another antivirus, antibiotic, and blood plasma from recovered patients of Covid-19.

The professors emphasize that the “recovery” trial is a work of a team of 20 members from oxford,  include more than 3400 doctors, nurses, admin, and research staff, as well as the patients without whom no medical progress would have been possible.

Remember that it is not a magic drug. Medical tests have shown that dexamethasone only helps patients who need artificial respiration or who are on a ventilator. It lowers the immune system’s response and gives the lungs a chance to recover.

Professor Landre said that he urges everyone to be aware of the results they are giving because this is the way they carry out their research.