Dexamethasone can improve COVID-19 survival, study shows
LA TimesIn a development that could dramatically shrink the death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, British researchers have found that a cheap and readily available steroid prevented more than a third of the sickest patients from dying. If people are tempted to use it inappropriately, it “will cause much sicker patients,” said Dr. Steven J. O’Day, director of regional research at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. The steroid “is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19,” said Oxford University’s Dr. Peter Horby, an infectious-diseases expert and one of the clinical trial’s chief investigators. “The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients.” Dexamethasone, he added, “is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.” Doctors who weren’t involved in the trial shared Horby’s enthusiasm. “But I imagine some will change their practice literally today.” Dr. Mark Hepokoski, a critical care specialist at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine, said that if the study’s preliminary results stand up to review by independent scientists, “it would give me a lot of comfort that there’s a treatment I can offer to our sickest patients.” As a physician whose patients have varying income levels, he added, “it’s reassuring not only that it works, but that it’s affordable and in large supply.” From the opening days of the pandemic, doctors caring for hospitalized COVID-19 patients have been buffeted by conflicting views over the value of steroid medications.