A cheap and widely available drug has been found to help save the lives of high-risk Covid-19 patients who are seriously ill with coronavirus.

It is called dexamethasone.

Experts in the United Kingdom say the low-dose steroid treatment is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, BBC reported.

A team from Oxford University conducted the trial.

Around 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone.

More than 4,000 did not receive the drug.

The trial found that for every eight patients treated on ventilators, one life could be saved.

For those patients treated with oxygen, one life could be saved for approximately every 20 to 25 treated when treated with the drug.

In other words, patients on ventilators have their risk of death cut by one-third, while those on oxygen have deaths cut by one-fifth.

The drug is part of the world's largest trial to test existing treatments to see what works for the coronavirus.

Cheap

Researchers estimated that up to 5,000 lives could have been saved if the drug had been used to treat patients in the U.K. from the start of the pandemic.

The drug is also cheap and would be a huge benefit for poorer countries.

The treatment is up to 10 days of dexamethasone and it costs about £5 (S$8.80) per patient.

It costs about £35 (S$61.50) to save a life.

This is a drug that is globally available.

When appropriate, hospital patients should now be given it without delay, but people should not go out and buy it to take at home, BBC reported an expert saying.

Dexamethasone does not appear to help people with milder symptoms of coronavirus though.

This refers to those who don't need help with their breathing.

So far, the evidence showed that about 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to hospital.

Of those who are admitted to hospital, most recover, but some may need oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

Dexamethasone appears to help these high-risk patients.

The drug is already used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions.

And it appears that it helps stop some of the damage that can happen when the body's immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.

The body's over-reaction is called a cytokine storm and it can be deadly.

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