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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Dexamethasone: Life-Saving Steroid For COVID-19 Treatment

Dexamethasone: Life Saving Steroid For COVID-19 Treatment

Steroid Dexamethasone is the new drug for COVID-19 treatment. Till now the most effective widely available medicine as claimed by British investigators. It was included in WHO's (World Health Organisation) essential drug list in 1977.

Who is making Steroid Dexamethasone?

Indian Drug Companies are making this drug for ages. The largest manufactures in India is Cadila Healthcare (Also known as Zydus Cadila.

Dexamethasone: Life Saving Steroid For COVID-19 Treatment

According to CNBCTV18, The trial done by Oxford University on COVID-19 patients on ventilators came with positive news. Dexamethasone - a generic steroid dosage helped in reducing the death rate of patients by One third. 
The patient on oxygen support got major relief due to this drug.

In the random trials by the UK, it was found that Dexamethasone is effective in reducing the mortality rate of the sickest patient who is on a ventilator struggling to breathe. A low dose of 6 mg of Dexamethasone was given to 2,104 patients per day and its results were compared with 4,321 patients with usual treatment.

UK is doing randomized trials of effective drugs to find COVID-19 therapies.

Specifically, Dexamethasone results shown reduced mortality rate from 41% to 28% out of the patients who required ventilation.

Dexamethasone should be included for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, as one of the chief investigator Peter Horby said. Peter Horby is a Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.
He added that Dexamethasone is the drug which shown to improve survival in COVID-19.
Dexamethasone: Life Saving Steroid For COVID-19 Treatment
 
“In intermediate patients who required oxygen support only, the deaths were reduced by a fifth: while 25% oxygen support patients died on standard care, 20 percent died when on dexamethasone,” according to CNBC TV-18.
Indian drug company Cadila Healthcare is a leading manufacturer of dexamethasone and is seeing a significant rise in its share value since the last week of March 2020.

Hydroxychloroquine is already banned by many countries as it was not showing positive results in the treatment of COVID-19. Dexamethasone will be the new medicine for the hospitals in the treatment of coronavirus. 

British clinical trial result was announced on Tuesday that Dexamethasone is effective in reducing the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients with severely damaged lungs.

As the regulators approved the drug, the British Prime Minister announced the reason to celebrate this remarkable achievement of researchers.

The drug is almost 60 yrs old in the market and every doctor knows about it. Dexamethasone is an inexpensive steroid being produced to treat various diseases.

Doctors are comfortable in prescribing this drug but the question is that doctors can't change the line of treatment based on a press release. They need research papers and reports before using it. 

Few may incorporate as they know how it will affect the patient. 

Still, many doctors have concerns over the use of steroids as they depress the immune system of patients. Using steroids has the risk of worsening the current infection.

Physicians across the world are excited with the result shown by Dexamethasone and are hopeful that in the next 6 months more options for treatment will be available as the second wave of COVID-19 will surge in winters.

Dexamethasone: Life Saving Steroid For COVID-19 Treatment

One cannot take Dexamethasone at home as the physicians do not prescribe it. Results were studied based on trials done on patients who are on a ventilator or oxygen.

physicians are awaiting the detailed report of the research paper and directions to use this drug in the treatment of COVID-19 based on the trial process.

To save people's life from this pandemic, the world needs more trials & more medicines for treatment. The world is still awaiting the vaccine for this deadly coronavirus.

Tags: Dexamethasone, Hydroxychloroquine, COVID-19 treatment, Coronavirus, Life-Saving, Clinical Trial, steroid, generic steroid, Inexpensive Treatment 

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