For the first time in the recent history of COVID-19, a cure, having the potential of saving lives, has been discovered by the British scientists called ‘Dexamethasone’.
Talking about this huge achievement that could save millions of lives worldwide, Boris Johnson, the British PM, said it is time to celebrate this ‘remarkable scientific achievement’. He further adds that he is making sure the hospitals throughout the country have enough supplies in case a second wave occurs.
Dexamethasone is a low-dose steroid drug that can reduce death risk by a fifth for patients on oxygen and by a third for those on ventilators. The drug is a part of big research done by a team of Oxford University which did its trial on around 2k patients in the hospitals of the UK. They were compared with 4k people who were not given the dose of this drug.
The results proved out astonishing as the drug reduced the death rate from 40% to 28% for patients on ventilators and lowered the death risk of patients on oxygen from 25% to 20%.
Prof. Peter Horby, the chief researcher, stated that this is the drug that’s proven out to be the most useful in terms of decreasing the mortality rate so significantly. He called it a breakthrough in this war against coronavirus.
Another lead professor Martin Landray said the protocol is to take the drug for 10-days and all it costs is £35 of the total for each patient which is quite economical and budget-friendly. He also said Dexamethasone will immediately be supplied to all the hospitals of the country and also made available worldwide.
The team wishes it found out this drug before so around 5,000 lives could have been saved. They also said the drug will be given to countries having no power of treatment yet but have the virus rapidly growing. The drug has always been used for different diseases like asthma and skin infections.