Paris (AFP)
Dexamethasone, a potent steroid effective in treating the most severely ill Covid-19 patients, according to results announced Tuesday by British researchers, is "already widely used" in French hospitals, infectious disease specialist Karine said on Wednesday Lacombe.
"Dexamethasone is part of the corticosteroid family. (...) In France, corticosteroids were very quickly given to patients who had Covid-19 very early because it reduces inflammation in the lungs", said on France Inter radio the head of the infectious diseases department of Saint-Antoine hospital (AP-HP).
"We know it is a treatment that works, we have used it on a large scale," she added.
Those responsible for the large British clinical trial Recovery announced on Tuesday that the drug reduced deaths by a third in patients on artificial ventilation, and a fifth in less severely ill patients on oxygen but not intubated.
All the data allowing the researchers to reach these conclusions have not yet been published.
In the process, the British government announced that this treatment would be used immediately to treat the affected patients.
This drug is already marketed in many indications for its powerful anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects.
"What we must remember from the study in England is that they have, without treatment, 40% mortality" in patients hospitalized in intensive care for Covid-19. "We in France, in French hospitals, the mortality was 13% (...) without treatment" other than standard care, said Karine Lacombe, saying she could not explain this difference.
Professor Lacombe is also leading a clinical trial, in collaboration with Inserm and the French Blood Establishment (EFS), which is assessing whether the transfusion of plasma from cured patients is effective in enabling hospitalized Covid-19 patients to heal faster.
© 2020 AFP