What is dexamethasone: This Covid 19 treatment drug that is being hailed as a breakthrough has the ability to save lives and what is more, it is available virtually off the shelf - in short, immediately! Dexamethasone, a steroid tablet that costs around 5 pounds, has suddenly become an important Coronavirus treatment drug for patients suffering from Covid 19. It has happened after some scientists claimed it was a 'major breakthrough' drug for Coronavirus. Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. Because it is cheap, it could also be of huge benefit in countries like India struggling to contain Covid-19 pandemic.

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Dexamethasone For Immediate Use By Covid-19 Patients
 In fact, the results suggest that the drug, available in tablet form, should immediately become standard care in Covid-19 patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers who led the trials.

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"This is a result that shows that if patients who have Covid-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost," said Martin Landray as quoted by Reuters, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial, known as the RECOVERY trial. 

Dexamethasone Covid 19 Drug Is Affordable
"There is a clear, clear benefit. The treatment is up to 10 days of dexamethasone and it costs about 5 pounds per patient. So essentially it costs 35 pounds to save a life. This is a drug that is globally available."

"It`s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life," he told reporters in an online briefing.

Dexamethasone History
Dexamethasone was first discovered in 1957 and is commonly prescribed to patients with allergic disorders, skin conditions, ulcerative colitis, arthritis and some types of cancer.

Dexamethasone Benefits
Chief investigator Prof Peter Horby, as quoted by the IANS, said, "This is the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality - and it reduces it significantly. It`s a major breakthrough," the BBC report said.

Prof Martin Landray held that the findings suggest that for every eight patients treated on ventilators, one life could be saved, and for those patients treated with oxygen, one life for approximately every 20-25 treated with the drug could be saved.

Dexamethasone Advisory
Prof Landray said that when appropriate, hospital patients should now be given it without delay, but cautioned people not to go out and buy it to take at home.

Dexamethasone Does Not Work For These Patients
Dexamethasone does not appear to help people with milder symptoms of coronavirus - those who don`t need help with their breathing.

Corona Recovery Trial
The Recovery Trial has been running since March. It included the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has subsequently been ditched amid concerns that it increases fatalities and heart problems.

What Could Have Been
Researchers claim that that if the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.