Steroid now used to treat Covid patients

JAPAN HAS approved a second drug – the inexpensive steroid dexamethasone - for the treatment of Covid-19 patients following the use of Remdesivir, reports said.

The easy-to-obtain drug dexamethasone also used to treat a wide range of conditions including lung disease - has drawn international attention since it was

reported in Britain that the drug reduced deaths among patients with severe cases of coronavirus, according to a report of the Japan Times.

It said dexamethasone was mentioned as a government-approved drug in a revised version of a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry handbook for treating Covid-19 patients.

The handbook, revised recently, cited the inclusion of the drug in a study by the University of Oxford and revised guidelines for treating Covid-19 patients by the National Institutes of Health of the United States.

According to the report, comparing around 2,100 patients who were administered with the drug for 10 days and 4,300 patients who were not, a University of Oxford team said in June that the drug reduced deaths by a third among ventilated patients and by a fifth among patients receiving oxygen only.

However, the death rate did not change for patients who did not require respiratory support, it said.

Taking into account the results of the Oxford study, the NIH revised its guidelines to recommend that the drug be administered to ventilated patients and those requiring oxygen injection.

The World Health Organization said the drug “can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with Covid-19.”

In April, the Department of Health announced that the participation of the Philippines to the World Health Organization (WHO) Solidarity trial to test the safety and effectiveness of four possible therapies in treating Covid-19 and among them is the Anti-viral Remdesivir.

The three others were the antimalarial drug Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine and the antiretroviral drugs used to treat Human Immuno Deficiency virus Lopinavir with Ritonavir, and Lopinavir with Ritonavir plus Interferon beta-1a.

More than 100 countries have joined the Solidarity Trial with over 1,200 patients randomized from the first five countries, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of four drugs and drug combinations. (Mindanao Examiner)

(Getty Images / Via Kyodo) The Japanese health ministry has approved the use of the steroid drug dexamethasone for the treatment of novel coronavirus patients.