Posted on 06/16/2020 7:01:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among COVID-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a “major breakthrough”.
Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.
The results suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers who led the trials.
“This is a result that shows that if patients who have COVID-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost,” said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial, known as the RECOVERY trial.
“It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life,” he told reporters in an online briefing.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I fear I probably don’t know much more than you, esp. if you’re a doctor. I was just an engineer, but I’m pretty good at observation, even if it’s just skirting some of “news” about these things.
I take no offense.
I will take an engineer with a good science background over most of the idiot Ph.Ds running around. You know how things are put together. I am always amazed by engineers — I have no idea how you do the things you do. It really does amaze me.
The closest I’ve come to this (and that is an anecdote right there - just how many do we know?) is right now, an employee of my husband’s has it and is a Cystic Fibrosis patient. He is younger, but I’m scared for him - and he refused hospitalization because he’s scared to be on ventilator. I bet he thinks its a death sentence. But the purpose is to help. Maybe he could get this treatment if US listens (UK study).
Well, when those PhDs are in African Studies and Women’s Studies....yeah.
And if you procrastinated and it's too late for that, once you hit the hospital, go with dexamethasone and above all, head off any need to intubate. Vents are not appropriate for COVID. People are just dying on he vents.
I am convinced I had COVID-19 in late December having all the symptoms including respiratory distress serious enough for me to seek treatment in the ER. While I was not hospitalized, I continued to have respiratory difficulties and laryngitis for several weeks. My doctor eventually prescribed steroids and that greatly relieved my symptoms. I am not surprised by these reports.
Thanks! That was quick.
HCQ not CQ. Good.
HCQ only, no zinc, no Z-Pack, no Vitamins D&C.
Z-Pack only.
Low-dose Dexamethason only.
Tocilizumab only.
Convalescent plasma only.
Lopinavir-Ritonavir only.
As near as I can tell, they aren’t testing the anecdotally demonstrated cocktail.
Off hand I can’t help but wonder if the deliberate exclusion of the synergistic combination was designed to demonstrate the none of the components were effective.
Look out!... Big Pharma and the FDA will be poo-pooing it before sundown.
Couple of studies finding benefits (when administered at the proper time) for HCQ, azithromycin, with one of those including zinc. Key is getting treated early.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.02.20080036v1.full.pdf
https://static.poder360.com.br/2020/04/2020.04.15-journal-manuscript-final.pdf
I does seem strange that they seem to be avoiding studies that include the HCQ + azithromycin + zinc combination. Wonder if they’ll ever get around to that and if they do if they’ll try to undermine it by not giving it early enough. I’ve read enough bad studies that i’ve lost confidence in medical researchers.
Man, scary. I just read that ventilators should be used as a last resort. That there were less intrusive options available but I am not a doctor and would not want to in-between a patient and his doctor. The choice to put me on a ventilator would take a long discussion with my doctor by me or my family. But I have no idea what is best your husband’s employee.
I wonder how up to date doctors and hospitals are in treating COVID-19. I’d hope that they’re doing everything they can to keep patients off ventilators. A lot has been learned about the disease over the past few months.
The MedCram youtube channel’s latest video is about questions to ask if in the hospital (and there’s a part two that hasn’t been posted yet.)
I am sorry, you are incorrect about ventilator support. It is irresponsible to make such a claim, and frankly probably practicing medicine without a license. The death rate of ARDS on the vent from any cause is about 40%. The CoVID death rate is about the same according to a recent European Society of Critical Care Medicine study. Let those of us trained to take care of the critically ill determine when and if a ventilator is appropriate.
MeCram is not a reputable intensivist, and his credentials when you dig a little deeper are that he teaches respiratory therapists and midlevels. It is another doc trying to make 15 minutes and springboard into some other profession.
I assure you he does not qualify for “keeping people up to date”. It was originally pulmonologists like him who advocated early intubation and ventilation and bypassing HFNC and NIPPV because of the fear that these modalities would aerosolize and spread the virus.
If you want to read the cliff notes of medicine and make recommendations, at least pick cliff notes that are not totally erroneous.
“I believe it already is approved for lung and other respiratory problems”
—
It has to be approved for off-label use. Hydroxychloroquine had to be also - but it was later pulled for use against covid by the FDA. The bureaucrats aren’t all that happy about any treatments, much less cures, having a chance to make a difference.
They are not reacting to ventilation as other people with ARDS or with pneumonia have done in the past. The novel coronavirus does unexpected damage to respiratory processes which is not yet understood. The role of the overwhelming toxic chemical cytokines raging through the lung tissue, being only one of the challenges perplexing doctors.
It's for good reason that doctors treating critical COVID-19 patients are now pulling back on ventilation and relying more on other methods of increasing oxygenation. More aggressive asthma management,esp. for younger (under-60) COVID patients with underlying asthma, using cheap common steroids like dexamethasone is becoming pretty salient.
Not telling you how to practice medicine, but doctors are seeing a new urgency in keeping people off mechanical ventilation which is causing permanent lung injuries. This is the reality.
I was on a vent for 16 days and there's no doubt it saved my life.
So I want to correct the sweeping nature of my comment.
The reality is the death rate on a vent for covid is 35% - same as it is for ARDS of any etiology. That is per the society of critical care medicines data. There is nothing unusual about the ARDS that develops in covid patients. I am glad you survived your episode on a vent
decadron is a steroid long approved for a variety of uses. No additional approval needed
"Ventilators are being sourced and stockpiled across the world — but some working on the front lines of the coronavirus epidemic are now wondering whether they might do more harm than good."A recent report from the NHS shows that over 67 per cent of coronavirus patients put on ventilators go on to die. Normally, around 40 per cent of patients would be expected to die while receiving mechanical ventilation.
"This unusually high death rate has also been shown in the US: on Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported that around 80 per cent of coronavirus patients put on ventilators in New York go on to die, according to state and city officials."
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