This archive report was first published on 16 June 2020.
Researchers at Oxford University have made a major breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19 with the discovery that a low-dose steroid treatment, dexamethasone, can save the lives of patients who are seriously ill with the virus.
According to the study, which involved over 6,000 hospital patients, dexamethasone cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators and by a fifth for those on oxygen.
The drug, which is already used to reduce inflammation in various conditions, appears to help stop some of the damage caused by the body's over-reaction to the virus, known as a cytokine storm.
Chief investigator Prof Peter Horby 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.'
Lead researcher Prof Martin Landray estimates that if the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.
With the drug costing around £5 per patient, it could be a game-changer for poorer countries struggling with high numbers of COVID-19 patients.
However, Prof Landray emphasized that people should not go out and buy the drug to take at home, but rather, it should be administered to hospital patients without delay.
