Major breakthrough in treatment

[Redolent]

A cheap steroid has become the first life-saving treatment in the Covid-19 pandemic, described by scientists as a major breakthrough and raising hopes for the survival of thousands of the most seriously ill.

Dexamethasone is cheap, available from any pharmacy, and easily obtainable anywhere in the world. Investigators said the drug was responsible for the survival of one in eight of the sickest patients – those who were on ventilators – in the Recovery trial, the biggest randomised, controlled trial of coronavirus treatments in the world.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/16/steroid-found-to-help-prevent-deaths-of-sickest-coronavirus-patients

Apparently it would have saved the lives of 5000 of those who died in the UK.

Great start in terms of treatment. Some scientists are predicting an effective cocktail of (3 or so) drugs available by the end of the year. Onwards and upwards.

Very positive news.

The Oxford vaccine trials seem to be going well too.

It gives us hope.

Quite useful section here about it

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexamethasone

Brilliant news! Well done to the uk scientists , nhs and the Brits that took part on the trials from all over the uk too.
Something we can be proud of

It’s great news and it’s brilliant that they’re looking at so many drugs already in use.m negating the need for lengthy development and trials.

I think steroids are a double edge sword though, they lower your immune system normally which is likely one of the reasons why they’re saying they’re no good as a preventative measure.

It's great news. I took dexamethasone while on chemotherapy and currently take a different steroid. Interestingly the steroid I'm on increases the risk of hospitalization with covid according to a recently published study.
Only the most seriously ill benefited from dexamethasone so no use in early stage / mild disease.

Fantastic news. Not to be too simplistic but steroids have probably saved my sons life when he's had terrible asthma attacks. I know it's not the same thing but they are very powerful drugs.

Its brilliant news, however I cant help but wonder if they havent been using steroids from the beginning? And if not, why not?

The difficulty is, if you just chuck a load of random drugs at someone on the off chance some of them will work how do you sort out what has helped, what made no difference and what made things worse?

And if they have been using steroids from the beginning, surely this isnt such big discovery?

"The difficulty is, if you just chuck a load of random drugs at someone on the off chance some of them will work how do you sort out what has helped, what made no difference and what made things worse?"

40 odd thousand patients is enough surely to have realised what works and what doesnt, especially when there has been medics all over the world with thousands more patients, to have worked out that steroids work. I'm just a lay person and even I know that steroids work with inflammation and that they are given for chest / breathing difficulties.

@Ibake

This is potentially huge. More and more successes like this give me enormous hope that we will have a range of options to live with COVID-19 even if the vaccine never gets approved. Then we can turn our much needed attention to the economy, education and all the other health issues that have been ignored for the last 3 months.

This is why it's always about buying time with Covid for those vulnerable because the medical profession will find better treatments. The worst time to catch it was at the beginning.

Great news.

According to BBC news we've banned it for export though which makes sense.

Although a drug in theory may be helpful it still requires a clinical trial to verify ‘ ones hunch ‘ is correct and that there are no significant adverse effects ( at least at that time ) .

"According to BBC news we've banned it for export though which makes sense."

I hadnt realised we made it in the UK? In the briefing, they were saying how good it was that it's cheaper overseas, than here, so could be used in poorer countries and across the world. It would be a bit odd to say that, then say we werent going to export it.

"bengalcat

Although a drug in theory may be helpful it still requires a clinical trial to verify ‘ ones hunch ‘ is correct and that there are no significant adverse effects ( at least at that time ) ."

But it's not a new drug? So not being tested from scratch. I took it that the trial was simply to see how it worked with covid.

But which steroids in what doses at what stage of the disease work best? It seems counterintuitive but without good studies that actually prove certain treatments have a measurable effect it’s all just guesswork really.

But it's not a new drug? So not being tested from scratch. I took it that the trial was simply to see how it worked with covid.

That's still a clinical trial. But we already know its safety profile and the dosing level that works so it's much more straightforward to test a drug against a new indication rather than developing a drug from scratch. I've been saying all along we'd get treatments before we get a vaccine (I'm a senior scientist in pharma), as a PP said once we identify a few more we'll be able to put together effective cocktails.

It's excellent news, this is a drug that has been around since the 60s and so will be out of patent, there will be multiple manufacturers around the world already and as it says on the BBC it's cheap as chips.

@TabbyMumz yes Dex has been around for years but it was / is one of the arms of the RECOVERY trial in UK to test it’s effectiveness and safety in Covid cases and the trial has shown it to reduce death rates in ventilated patients which is good .

Yes I understand it's been round for years, I just cant believe it's taken this long to announce its use. Surely most medics would have been using it all along? So when people say it could have saved 5000, how do we know it hasnt already,?

This is great news
Although 5000 out of all those lives lost still seems such a small number :(

CountFosco....question...are there any trials for drugs to stop clotting? I obviously know about blood thinners, but is there a trial to say a particular one is good against covid?

I think this drug (and why it was chosen) suppresses an overactive immune system, so in patients who are very ill it can reduce symptoms but in less sick patients, suppressing the immune systems is a bad idea as that is all that is fighting the virus.

Great news and amazing it has taken just a few months to become a proven effective treatment.

It's great news. But don't start throwing the rules out just yet. We still have a long way to go.

That's still a clinical trial I believe they said the trial ended last week.
Only of benefit to the most seriously ill.
I'd like to know why dexamethasone and not one of the many other steroids around. Will they trial prednisolone for example or does it have different properties.

@Kirschcherry

This is amazing news! The only thing that I’m surprised by is how long this took. I realise people medicine works differently and requires more testing but my DH who is a vet said months ago, right at the start of this, that the first drug he would try to treat this with was Dexamethasone.

Well done your DH!

But don't forget they haven't just come up with the idea, they've done quite a big human trial (with all the paperwork that involves!!) they had to get enough people to agree to the trial & do it over a sustained period etc

I think they've done really well.

But genuinely impressed by your DH