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Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid drug used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects.
India now has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after Brazil and the United States. On July 15, India recorded 9,36,181 confirmed cases, including 24,309 deaths due to coronavirus, according to data on the Union Health Ministry website. However, the recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has increased to 63.02%. As many as 5,92,031 people who were infected with the virus have been discharged after treatment, as per the Health Ministry data.
The present guidelines allow COVID-19 patients with a very mild symptoms or pre-symptomatic/asymptomatic cases for home isolation. Only those who develop severe symptoms of breathlessness, less oxygen (below 90) are treated in hospitals or COVID care facilities. This is done to reduce the burden on hospitals and ensure that severely ill patients are treated first. Various drugs have been claimed to be effective against for COVID-19, and are being used for treatment of coronavirus patients.
Most of these drugs are still undergoing clinical trials and none of them has been proven safe and effective against the novel coronavirus. They have been only approved for emergency use under restricted conditions or as an "off-label" drug during the pandemic.
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Among these experimental treatment plans for COVID-19, dexamethasone is considered to be the most promising one. This cheap steroid drug used to fight inflammation is the only drug that has shown striking impact on mortality.
UK's RECOVERZY Trials published last month showed that dexamethasone can reduce deaths by one-third in patients with severe Covid-19 infection who need oxygen therapy or are on ventilators and by one-fifth in those with less severe symptoms. Dexamethasone has been approved as "off-label" drug for treatment COVID-19 severe cases. It works to control immune response and cytokine storm triggered by the novel coronavirus.
Easy availability, low-cost and very little side effects make dexamethasone a better option than other drug candidates proposed for treatment of COVID-19. The WHO has hailed this drug as a "promising and safe" drug. Although dexamethasone might cut mortality rates, there is no conclusive proof that it is indeed the wonder drug for COVID-19. Some doctors say dexamethasone works only for late-stage; invasively ventilated patients and that it should not be given in mild cases.
Two other drugs were highly touted as a cure for COVID-19 hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir. US President Donald Trump had even claimed that he was hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19. But a major clinical trial showed the malaria drug had no benefit for patients hospitalized with Covid-19. In fact, patients treated with hydroxychloroquine were found to experience to severe heart arrhythmia. The US's FDA has revoked Emergency Use Authorisation of the drug. India has also moved the drug out of treatment protocol for severe cases.
Gilead Sciences' patented antiviral drug remdesivir has approved for emergency use in treatment of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients. Clinical trials have shown that remdesivir is effective in shortening recovery time and hospital stay but it does not reduce mortality. But it does not provide the same benefits for all patients.