COVID19: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug

A cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with COVID-19.

The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone (dek·suh·meh·thuh·sown)is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus.

Experts in the UK have told the BBC that the drug has cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators.

For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

The drug is part of the world's biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus.

Researchers told the BBC that had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.

And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of Covid-19 patients.