Page 27 - COVID-19-Mortality-review-in-Malaysia-and-updates-on-clinical-management-of-COVID-19
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COVID-19 Recovery Study, UK - Dexamethasone
proves first life-saving drug
In this particular study (through a press release, not yet published in journal),
dexamethasone was given indiscreetly [3, 4]. Dexamethasone prescription was not
based on the warning signs like CRP going up which I have spoken to you about.
Everybody was given dexamethasone 6 mg daily for 10 days and then compared with
the placebo group. They looked at 28-day mortality rates. The 1007 patients who were
mechanically ventilated, dexamethasone improved the 28-day mortality by about 30%
or 1/3. About 3883 patients who were on supplemental oxygen, dexamethasone
improved the mortality by about 20 percent. But if the dexamethasone was given for
people who were not on supplemental oxygen, there was no improvement in
mortality. In fact, maybe you could argue there was some non-significant direction
towards harm. This tells us that a big chunk of the deterioration in COVID-19 is
because of inflammatory response. By giving dexamethasone to everybody, it actually
decreases the mortality rate.
Diagram 11: Unpublished findings from Recovery Study, UK [3, 4]
