Initial tests suggest that a new drug combination is up to four times as effective in keeping Covid patients out intensive care.
The first licensed drug that was approved for treatment of the virus is the dexamethasone steroid. However, clinical trials have shown it to work better when combined with the heart failure medicine spironolactone.
An analysis of Delhi hospital patients was done by Sir Christopher Edwards (ex-vice-chancellor, Newcastle University).
In hospitalised patients taking the ‘Spidex’ cocktail, just 5.4 per cent were admitted to intensive care compared to 19.6 per cent of just dexamethasone
He found that, in hospitalised patients taking the ‘Spidex’ cocktail, just 5.4 per cent were admitted to intensive care compared to 19.6 per cent of those taking dexamethasone alone.
He is now calling for a wider trial of the Spidex system, as he feels that more people could be saved.
The findings of his research, published in Frontiers in Endocrinology journal, showed 40 Covid patients using Spidex did better in every clinical, radiological, and biochemical measure than 40 Covid-treated patients with high doses dexamethasone.
The treatment works by ‘turning off’ the impact the virus has on the body, rather than targeting the virus itself.
Sir Christopher hopes that this combination can also fight the Omicron mutation virus.