{"id":1656,"date":"2021-06-16T17:50:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T17:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2021-06-16T17:50:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T17:50:21","slug":"another-life-saving-covid-treatment-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/another-life-saving-covid-treatment-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Another life-saving Covid treatment found"},"content":{"rendered":"
Exactly a year on from the discovery that a\u00a0cheap steroid drug prevented Covid deaths, researchers say they have found another life-saving therapy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It is expensive – a potent intravenous infusion of antibodies to neutralise the virus, rather than dampen the body’s inflammatory response to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Results from the\u00a0Recovery trial\u00a0suggest it could help one in three of those in hospital with severe Covid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For every 100 patients treated, experts calculate, it would save six lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But only those who have not already made any antibodies of their own to fight the virus should be given the treatment, which costs between \u00a31,000 and \u00a32,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kimberley Featherstone, 37, who received the treatment during the trial, said: “I feel very lucky that the trial was up and running by the time I was taken to hospital with Covid-19 and I was able to receive this ground-breaking treatment.<\/p>\n “I’m happy that by participating I played a part in finding out this treatment is successful.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The monoclonal antibody treatment, made by Regenoron, binds to the virus to stop it infecting cells and replicating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the trial, which included nearly 10,000 UK hospital patients, it significantly reduced the:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Joint chief investigator Sir Martin Landray said: “Giving them this combination of two antibodies by an intravenous infusion then actually reduces their chances of dying by a fifth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “What we found is now here we can use an antiviral treatment, in this case these antibodies, in patients who have got a one in three chance of dying untreated and we can reduce that risk for them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The treatment was given in addition to the anti-inflammatory steroid drug dexamethasone, which itself cuts death risk by up to a third for the sickest Covid patients.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Peter Horby, the other chief investigator, said there had been great uncertainty about whether antibody therapies were the right approach, when some other studies had found no benefit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Using blood plasma from recovered patients – which contains antibodies that should recognise and fight the virus –\u00a0has not proved effective as a Covid therapy, for example.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the antibody treatment used in the Recovery trial contains large doses of two specific antibodies, made in the lab, that are good at latching on to the pandemic virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Peter said: “It is wonderful to learn that even in advanced Covid-19 disease, targeting the virus can reduce mortality in patients who have failed to mount an antibody response of their own.<\/p>\nGround-breaking treatment<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Great uncertainty<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n