World Health Organization Praises Oxford's Dexamethasone Clinical Trials to Fight Covid-19

The World Health Organization says the drug dexamethasone is showing promise in saving the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients who suffer from severe respiratory complications.

The announcement follows clinical trials by the United Kingdom and the University of Oxford in which the drug reduced the mortality rate by one-third when administered to those patients on ventilators, and by one-fifth when given to patients requiring only oxygen.

The preliminary trials found no benefits for those with mild cases of COVID-19. 

“This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's  director general.

Ghebreyesus also thanks the U.K. government and the University of Oxford, hospitals and patients involved for what he called a "lifesaving scientific breakthrough." 

Over 11,500 patients were enrolled from over 175 National Health Service hospitals in the U.K.

As reported by Oxford, a total of 2,104 randomized patients had received dexamethasone 6 mg once per day (either by mouth or by intravenous injection) for 10 days and were compared with 4,321 randomized patients who received usual care alone.

Among the patients who had received usual care alone, 28-day mortality was highest in those who required ventilation (41%), intermediate in those patients who required oxygen only (25%), and lowest among those who did not require any respiratory intervention (13%).
 

"Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. This is an extremely welcome result," said Peter Horby, professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and one of the chief investigators for the trial. 

Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide. Based on these results, one death would be prevented by treatment of about eight ventilated patients or roughly 25 patients requiring oxygen alone.

Dexamethasone has been used to reduce inflammation for a variety of conditions and inflammatory disorders and for leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

It has also been used to treat nausea and vomiting associated with some chemotherapy drugs and to stimulate cancer patients' appetites. 

As a steroid, dexamethasone is currently off-patent and has been in use since the 1960s. It listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977. 

In February at the WHO meeting in Geneva, the group's leadership asked that accelerated research be conducted into the use of steroids to fight COVID-19. 

According to Oxford, the researchers moved quickly to release their findings because of the "scientific breakthrough" and will be reporting as soon as possible on their results in more detail.