COVID-19 Research Confirms Corticosteroids Improves Survival Rate Of Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2 In Critical Conditions
Source: COVID-19 Research Sep 03, 2020 4 years, 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 2 hours, 29 minutes ago
A new
COVID-19 Research study published the JAMA Journal that involved an international collaboration of huge magnitude has shown that widely available corticosteroids improved the survival rates of COVID-19 patients experiencing severity and in critical conditions.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2770279
Researchers and medical experts pooled data from 121 hospitals in eight countries to find that inexpensive, widely available steroids improve the odds that very sick COVID-19 patients will survive the illness.
The WHO or World Health Organization is updating its COVID-19 treatment guidance as a result.
The REMAP-CAP Trial is one of seven randomized control trials to test corticosteroids -a class of drug that lowers inflammation and modulates immune system activity for treating COVID-19 in critically ill patients.
A detailed analysis combining all the trial data reinforces the June results of the UK RECOVERY trial, which found the steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths by 29% in ventilated COVID-19 patients.
Lead researcher Dr Derek Angus, M.D., M.P.H., Professor and chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and chief health care innovation officer at University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center told Thailand Medical News, “It is relatively rare in medicine that you find drugs where the evidence of their effectiveness in saving lives is so consistent. This is in many respects, the single clearest answer we have had so far on how to manage terribly ill COVID-19 patients. Individuals on ventilators or oxygen and under intensive care should definitely be given corticosteroids.”
From the period March and June, the REMAP-CAP corticosteroid trial randomized 403 adult COVID-19 patients admitted to an intensive care unit to receive the steroid hydrocortisone or no steroids at all.
The study trial found a 93% probability that giving patients a seven-day intravenous course of hydrocortisone would result in better outcomes than not giving the steroid.
The trial results were consistent across age, race and sex.
Senior author Dr Anthony Gordon, M.D., Professor of anesthesia and critical care at Imperial College London and an NIHR research professor, added, “At the beginning of the year, it felt almost hopeless at times, knowing that we had no specific treatments. It was a worrying time. Yet less than six months later, we have found clear, reliable evidence in high-quality clinical trials of how we can tackle this devastating disease. We now have more than one choice of steroid treatment for those who need it most. Steroids are not a cure, but they help improve outcomes.”
He further added,” Having a choice of different types of steroids, all of which seem to improve patient recovery, is great as it helps ease the problem of drug supply issues.”
The REMAP-CAP Trial and the other corticosteroid trials did not test the drugs in patients with less severe COVID-19.
Corticosteroids are no
t currently recommended for mild or moderate patients because they can dampen the immune system and have serious side effects.
These clinical trials were mostly conducted in resource-rich countries across Europe, North America and Australasia, so the findings may not translate to low- and middle-income countries.
As a result of the trial being designed to simultaneously test multiple combinations of potential therapies as opposed to the traditional, slow clinical trial process that tests one therapy at a time, the REMAP-CAP Trial is particularly well-suited for rapidly identifying effective treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trial is currently is testing thousands of different treatment regimens, including various doses and combinations of vitamin C, convalescent plasma, blood thinners, antivirals and immune modulators.
Co-author Dr Lennie Derde, M.D., Ph.D., from the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands added, “The publication of the study results, those of the other trials as well as the prospective meta-analysis, all within seven weeks of the RECOVERY publication, is a great example of what we can accomplish with global collaboration. And the joint effort of so many people across the globe to deliver this trial has been especially inspiring.”
Thailand Medical News will be providing more updates on the ongoing REMAP-CAP Trial especially on Vitamin C which is proving to be an interesting adjuvant candidate for COVID-19 treatment much to the disappointment of the big pharma companies and certain corrupted governments in the West.
