Better at treatment

Professor Marc Mendelson

The University of Cape Town infectious diseases expert said the way patients with severe disease were treated in hospitals has changed.

“We have learnt a lot about optimising oxygen delivery in hospitals for those needing support,” he said.

A breakthrough had been the UK recovery trial which “taught us that patients requiring oxygen support in hospital have reduced mortality if given a daily dose of steroid”.

Compared to the onset of the pandemic, if you are admitted to hospital now “you may well be offered to participate in such a trial of new treatments”.

The biggest lesson, said Mendelson, is the “critical importance” of well-conducted trials that produce verifiable results.

Small studies had been used to tout treatments that were “of no benefit from a public health perspective”.

Also, “we have relearnt the central role of infection prevention in our communities and hospitals”, and learnt that we have to step up our work on pandemic preparedness. —