Two arthritis drugs reduce risk of coronavirus death

When London hospitals are overflowing with patients with coronavirus and its new variant, arthritis treatment has shown it can reduce the risk of death by 24% patients with the virus admitted to intensive care. The results suggest that tocilizumab and sarilumab, two drugs used for rheumatism, have helped save the life of one in 12 patients with severe Covid in therapy.

The UK Health Service (NHS) will start using tocilizumab from this Friday. According to their tests, there was 800 patients who benefited from this drug.

The other drug, sarilumab, causes similar effects and not only saves lives, but reduces the time patients spend in intensive care. The two drugs could save thousands of lives as the NHS begins to feel overwhelmed.

Tocilizumab has also been found to reduce the time critically ill patients spend in intensive care up to ten days, offering help to hospitals facing what the head of the health service called an “extremely serious situation” last night.

The drug costs around 750 to 1000 pounds per patient (86,000 to 115,000 pesos) and the dose depends on body weight.

Although the results of the tocilizumab trial alone are not sufficient, Anthony Gordon of Imperial College London, who led the study, said that “they immediate implications for the sickest patients with Covid-19 ”.

“At a time when hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid-19 increase in the UK, it is crucial that continue to identify effective treatments, which can help reverse the course of this disease, ”explained Professor Gordon.

For 12 patients who receive it, a life will be saved, enter the test data. “It’s a great effect. This is why we think these results are really important and exciting. We want to share them as quickly as possible. It’s a small number of patients who need to be treated to save a life, ”he said.

The results come from the Remap-Cap study, conducted by the Imperial and National Center for Intensive Care Audit and Research (ICNARC) in the UK and the University of Utrecht Medical Center in Europe. Researchers looked at tocilizumab and a very similar drug called sarilumab.

It is already starting to be used

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who suffered from acute Covid, has promised to order his application on site: “These life-saving drugs will be available through the NHS with immediate effect.”

This Friday will be published updated guidelines for NHS hospitals, encouraging them to use tocilizumab in the treatment of Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care units.

Sir Simon Stevens, executive director of NHS England, could not say he was confident patients would continue to receive normal care, as he warned that Covid-19 admissions were “accelerating very, very quickly”.

Record of cases

There were 52,618 new cases in the UK, 33.8% more than the seven-day average, and 1,162 deaths, 29% more in seven days.

The Prime Minister said hundreds of thousands of people a day would receive vaccinations next week, in a “big boost” from the NHS. The Moderna vaccine was approved in Britain and France on Friday.

Sir Simon said those who say the coronavirus “was a hoax were contributing to the death toll”.

Finally, and faced with the serious situation, the kingdom changed its policy on airports, ferries and international trains. All international travelers, including overseas Britons, must show a negative result of the coronavirus test to enter the UK from next Thursday.

A record 3,697 patients infected with the virus were admitted to English hospitals on Tuesday. They are now treating 28,246 people for the disease, 49% more than the peak last April. At the same time, the NHS is treating three patients for other conditions for each Covid-19 patient, up from a two-to-one ratio in April.

Although 1,300 intensive care beds have been opened and Nightingale Emergency Hospitals, armed by the military and with few specialist staff, are in use, Sir Simon pleaded with the population to adhere to “the rules of detention” to stop the increase in cases. “It is vital that the infection rate is now under control,” he told a press conference in Downing Street.

Medical chiefs warned on Monday that there was a serious risk the NHS would be overwhelmed in some areas. Sir Simon said: “We see it clearly in London.”

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