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 Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, used since
the 1960s to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut
death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19
patients admitted to hospital.
The WHO's clinical guidance for treating patients infected with the
new coronavirus is aimed at doctors and other medical professionals
and seeks to use the latest data to inform clinicians on how best to
tackle all phases of the disease, from screening to discharge.
Although the dexamethasone study's results are preliminary, the
researchers behind the project said it suggests the drug should
immediately become standard care in severely stricken patients.
For patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce
mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only
oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth, according to
preliminary findings shared with WHO.
The benefit was only seen in patients seriously ill with COVID-19
and was not observed in patients with milder disease.
The positive news comes as coronavirus infections accelerated in
some places including the United States and as Beijing cancelled
scores of flights to help contain a fresh outbreak in China's
capital.
"This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in
patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support," WHO
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement late
on Tuesday. The agency said it was looking forward to the full data
analysis of the study in coming days.
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"WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of
this intervention. WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when
the drug should be used in COVID-19," the agency added.
But South Korea's top health official cautioned about the use of the drug for
COVID-19 patients.
"(It) has already long been used in South Korean hospitals to treat patients
with different inflammation," Jeong Eun-kyeong, head of Korea Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
"But some experts have warned of the drug not only reducing the inflammatory
response in patients, but also the immune system and may trigger side effects.
KCDC is discussing the use of it for COVID-19 patients."
(Reporting by Michael Shields and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay, writing by John
Miller; Additional reporting by Sangmi Cha in Seoul; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman, Michael Perry and Giles Elgood)
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