What work is being done to seek out treatments? More than 150 different drugs are being researched in several countries. Most are existing medicine that is being trialed against the virus.
The UK is running the world’s largest clinical test, known as Recovery, with over 12,000 patients participating – it’s one among the few trials to have given a definitive view on which medicine do and do not work The World Health Organization (WHO) is running the solidarity trial to assess promising treatments in countries around the world Multiple pharmaceutical corporations are running trials of their own medicine There are 3 broad approaches being investigated: Antiviral medication that directly have an effect on the coronavirus’s ability to thrive within the body Drugs that calm the system Severe Covid-19 is caused by patients’ immune systems overreacting and damaging the body.
Antibodies that will target the virus, taken from either survivors’ blood or created in a research lab It is attainable that completely different drugs can work better at different stages – similar to anti-virals at the start and immune drugs in late-stage diseases. Combos of therapies also will be investigated.
The only life-saving drug Of all the medication being trialed, only 1 has been proven to save lots of lives – dexamethasone – and it’s a major breakthrough within the fight against coronavirus.
The UK’s Recovery trial showed the drug cut the chance of death by a 3rd for patients on ventilators and by a fifth for those on Oxygen.
Dexamethasone is a steroid that calms down inflammation (part of the immune response) within the body.
Crucially it’s also low-cost which implies it could be used all around the world.
However, the drug doesn’t work on people with milder symptoms.
What alternative drugs look promising? Remdesivir is an antiviral agent that was originally developed to treat Ebola fever.
Clinical trials of over 1,000 individuals found it cut the period of symptoms from 15 days to 11. It’s not been shown to save lives, though studies are still continuing.
However, the United States has bought the majority of the supplies, with the manufacturer Gilead additionally donating some to South Korea.
Interferon-beta could be a protein that the body usually makes to dampen down inflammation. It’s used as a treatment for multiple sclerosis.
The UK company Synairgen is delivering the drug on to Covid-19 patients’ lungs employing a nebulizer.
Initial findings recommend the treatment cut the chances of a patient in hospital developing severe disease, however, larger clinical trials are currently required.
