The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that show dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19.
According to the early findings shared with WHO, for patients on oxygen alone the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one fifth,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General, at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday (17 Jun). “And for patients requiring a ventilator, mortality was reduced by about one third.”
Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries.
“It’s exceptionally important that this drug is used under medical supervision,” said Dr Michael Ryan, WHO’s Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme. “This is not for mild cases. This is not for prophylaxis. This is a very, very powerful anti-inflammatory drug. It can rescue patients who are in very serious condition where their lungs and their cardiovascular system around their lungs may be very inflamed. So, this allows possibly that patients are able to continue getting oxygen into the blood from the lungs for a very critical period by rapidly reducing inflammation at a critical period in the illness.”
Dexamethasone is “not a treatment for the virus itself,” Dr Ryan explaining further that “in fact steroids, particularly powerful steroids can be associated with a viral replication. In other words, they can actually, facilitate the division and replication of viruses in human bodies.”
“It’s exceptionally important in this case that this drug is reserved for use in severely ill and critical patients who can benefit from this drug clearly,” Ryan underlined.
The researchers shared initial insights about the results of the trial with WHO, and the full data analysis is expected in the coming days. WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase its overall understanding of this intervention and based on that, the WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19.
“It is one, but of the many breakthroughs we’re going to need in order to effectively deal with COVID-19,” said Dr Ryan.
As of 16 June, WHO reported more than eight million case of COVID-19 globally with over 440 000 people dying with the virus.