Covid-19: drug appears to improve survival for the first time

Text by: RFI Follow

Finally a somewhat effective treatment against Covid-19? This is the case, announce the British health authorities: dexamethasone, a steroid with anti-inflammatory properties. An already known and rather affordable drug which has the merit of reducing mortality in the most affected patients.

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It was one of the treatments tested in the British Recovery trial, it appears that it is the only one that has a beneficial effect on mortality. In this study, dexamethasone was administered to more than 2,000 patients, their clinical course was then compared to 4,300 others who had not received it. 

The results are encouraging: mortality in the most affected patients, those who have been intubated, has decreased by a third.

In patients less affected, but who still needed oxygen, the benefit is still present even if it is less clear: mortality this time decreased by a fifth.

On the other hand, for the less serious forms, the administration of dexamethasone did not change anything. That said, with this first effective treatment for Covid-19, these results open a door that has remained closed until today.

They are preliminary, however, that did not prevent the British government from immediately announcing the widespread use of dexamethasone to treat the most serious cases of Covid-19.

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