The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday (16 June) described the UK’s use of a basic steroid to treat critically ill patients with COVID-19 as a “life-saving scientific breakthrough”.
About a third of those with severe illness survive.
The Oxford study was funded by state and private donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
“This is good news and I congratulate the UK government, Oxford University and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this life-saving scientific breakthrough,” the WHO director-general said, according to AFP, the Associated Press and Reuters.
Researchers at Oxford University treated more than 2,000 people with severe COVID-19 with the steroid dexamethasone.
Dexamethasone was found to reduce death rates by 35 per cent in patients who had to be put on a ventilator.
Preliminary results have also shown that it can reduce the mortality rate of patients who need oxygen treatment without ventilator from 25% to 20%.
Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, said: “Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve coVID-19 survival…
This is a very encouraging result.”
“Dexamethasone is cheap and ready to be used immediately to save lives around the world,” he said.
But he also stressed that the drug would not help with mild symptoms, and would only help patients hospitalized with the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said patients in the UK would begin receiving the drug immediately and thanked the Oxford scientists.