Why Dexamethasone is the first life-saving COVID-19 drug
Dexamethasone has been listed on WHO model list of essential medicines since 1977, it is a steroid that decreases the body’s natural defensive response and decrease inflammation.
According to 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 drug is given to patients either through an injection or as a tablet.
The researchers said that there was no benefit among those patients with milder symptoms, meaning those who did not require respiratory support.
The preliminary results from the trial led by Oxford scientists show that the drug can reduce deaths by one-third in ventilated COVID-19 patients and by one-fifth in patients receiving oxygen only.
Dexamethasone can also cure,
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Crohn’s disease
- Systemic lupus
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Ulcerative colitis
- Bronchial asthma
- Allergic rhinitis
- Drug-induced dermatitis
- Ccontact and atopic dermatitis
- Severe psoriasis
- Pemphigus
- White blood cells (leukemias)
- Lymph gland cancers
