a drug that is normally given to people
with arthritis could help covert
patients
a major trial shows that when tossing
izumab is combined with the steroid
dextermethasone
it can cut by up to half the number of
people number of cova patients dying in
hospital
as our medical editor fergus walsh
reports the trials were carried out here
in the uk
searching among existing medicines for
any that can treat kovid
has been a huge task
first there was dexamethasone now
there's toscilisimab
together they can dramatically improve
survival for patients on oxygen
compared with a year ago when we really
did not know how to
treat this disease we now have two
treatments they both act on the immune
system
dexamethasone and tosalisimab put them
together
and we reduce the risk of death by a
third or even as much as a half
in the sickest patients that's great
news
dexamethasone a steroid costs just five
pounds
whereas the arthritis drug toss elizimab
at least
500 pounds per patient but that's still
far less
than the 2000 pounds a day cost of being
in icu
this therapy looks like it keeps people
out of the intensive care unit so they
never need to meet people like me
which can only be a good thing so as
well as improving survival
it actually will decrease the number of
people who need to come to intensive
care which is fabulous
there's understandably a huge focus on
preventing coronavirus and vaccines
but for those with covid it is
treatments like dexamethasone
and tosalisimab which will save lives
now
i may need the research so i just signed
up for them
lawrence spent several days in intensive
care
at aden brooks hospital in cambridge but
now has his bags packed
ready to go home he's one of tens of
thousands of coved patients
taking part in nhs trials if nobody's
willing to try and you're back to square
one again aren't you
nobody's gonna do any no do anything
last month nhs hospitals treated more
than a hundred
thousand coved patients that's around
one in three of all those admitted
since the pandemic began covid remains
a brutal disease but the chances of
surviving it
are improving fergus walsh bbc news