Geneva, September 10: World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said therapeutic – Dexamethasone has proven effective for patients with severe and critical COVID-19. Currently, there are 180 vaccines in the development stage. According to the WHO chief 35 are in the human trials stage. COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Serum Institute Pauses Coronavirus Vaccine Trails Till Further Orders From DCGI, Say Reports.

Ghebreyesu stated, “One therapeutic - dexamethasone - has already proven effective for patients with severe & critical #COVID19, others have been proven ineffective & still others are in trials. Around 180 vaccines are in development, including 35 in human trials.” Pfizer Looks at Vaccine with Fewest Side Effects.

Statement by WHO Chief: 

Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects. “It was tested in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom’s national clinical trial RECOVERY and was found to have benefits for critically ill patients,” WHO said.

According to preliminary findings shared with WHO (and now available as a preprint), for patients on ventilators, the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one third, and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth.

In August,  Russia registered its first coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. Phase-3 trials of the vaccine has also begun. On Wednesday, China also approved for trials its first nasal spray vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus that has claimed over 904,000 lives and infected more than 27 million people globally. Meanwhile, the University of Oxford paused clinical trials of its vaccine due to “unexplained illness” of one of the volunteers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 10, 2020 09:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).