SEOUL (SOUTH KOREA) – South Korea has added Gilead’s anti-viral drug remdesivir to its coronavirus treatment guidelines in its first revision of recommendations since the outbreak began. The nation has also urged caution in the use of the steroid therapy dexamethasone.
South Korea, which won accolades for its handling of the pandemic without a full lockdown, has reported 12,602 coronavirus cases as of Thursday midnight, with 282 deaths.
Remdesivir hinders certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, from making copies of themselves and potentially overwhelming the body’s immune system. However, it had previously failed trials in Ebola treatment.
South Korea’s updated guidelines come after a study showed that the cheap and widely used dexamethasone cut down death rates among seriously sick COVID-19 patients. They advised doctors to take caution until a full study is published.
“It seems appropriate to administer (dexamethasone), limited to severe cases with acute respiratory syndrome, as the doctor monitors the patient’s condition,” Kim Young-ok, director general of pharmaceutical safety bureau at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, told a briefing on Friday.
There was enough domestic supply of the dexamethasone, widely used since the 1960s, with the production of approximately 43 million tablets and 60 million injection ampoules a year, said Kim.
Doctors in Europe will soon be able to treat patients with the drug after the healthcare regulator’s endorsement put it on track to become the first therapy for the disease on the continent.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field