Coronavirus Notebook: Dexamethasone Reduces Deaths In Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

On 16 June it was announced that a low-cost, widely available steroid, dexamethasone, had become the first drug to show an improvement in survival in hospitalized patients requiring ventilation. The data came from the large-scale UK Recovery trial, run by the University of Oxford, which is investigating a number of potential treatments including low-dose dexamethasone, the HIV combination lopinavir/ritonavir, and the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine. 

Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the university’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, and one of the trial’s chief investigators, said: “Since the appearance of COVID-19 six months ago, the search has been on for treatments that can improve survival, particularly in the sickest patients. These preliminary results from the Recovery trial are very clear – dexamethasone reduces the risk of death among patients with severe respiratory complications