GENEVA, June 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization on Tuesday hailed as a “lifesaving scientific breakthrough” the British use of a basic steroid to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients, saving about a third of them.
“This is great news and I congratulate the Government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough,” WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Up to now there has been no effective treatment or vaccine for the coronavirus which has claimed nearly 440,000 lives since it first appeared in China in December.
British researchers on Tuesday said they found the first drug — Dexamethasone — proven” to cut COVID-19 deaths which could be of huge benefit of poorer countries with high infection rates because of its low cost.
“It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth,” experts in UK said.
England’s chief medical officer Chris called the development “the most important trial result for COVID-19 so far”.
“It will save lives around the world,” Whitty said. — NNN-AGENCIES
