Coronavirus treatments

In addition to the Covid-19 vaccine, many drugs are also being tested as treatments for people who already have the disease.

Most of these are existing drugs tested against the virus.

What work is done to find treatments?

• The UK is running the world's largest clinical trial called "rehabilitation", with more than 12,000 patients participating-this is one of the few clear trials on which drugs are effective and ineffective.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) is conducting a "Solidarity" trial to evaluate promising treatments in countries around the world

• Many pharmaceutical companies are testing their own drugs

Three broad methods are being studied:

• Antiviral drugs that directly affect the growth of coronavirus in the body

• Drugs that calm the immune system (severe Covid-19 is caused by the patient's immune system overreacting and damaging the body)

• Antibodies that can be extracted from the plasma of survivors or prepared in the laboratory that can target the virus

Different drugs may work better at different stages-such as antiviral drugs at the beginning and immune drugs in advanced disease. Combinations of therapies will also be studied.

Steroid therapy

It has been shown that the steroid dexamethasone can reduce the risk of death in ventilator patients by one-third and the risk of death in oxygen patients by one-fifth.

Further data indicate that another sterol hydrocortisone is equally effective.

Both can calm inflammation in the body (part of the immune response), and in severe cases may cause damage.

Crucially, dexamethasone is also cheap, which means it can be used all over the world.

However, the drug is not suitable for people with mild symptoms.

Interferon beta

Interferon beta is a protein produced by the human body when it is infected by a virus. It is the core of a large British experiment.

It is delivered to hospitalized Covid patients in the form of an inhaled spray.

It is hoped that the drug will stimulate the immune system and prepare the cells to fight the virus.

Early findings indicate that interferon beta (usually used to treat multiple sclerosis) can reduce the chance of Covid patients in hospitals with serious illnesses (such as ventilation) by nearly 80%.

Tocilizumab and sarilumab

Researchers report that the two anti-inflammatory drugs Tocilizumab and sarilumab are encouraging.

In a trial conducted in six different countries, including the United Kingdom, about 800 intensive care patients, these drugs reduced the death toll from 36% to 27%.

Tocilizumab and sarilumab can reduce inflammation, which may be excessive in Covid patients and damage the lungs and other organs.

The doctor can give them to a Covid patient, although the patient is treated with dexamethasone, but it is still getting worse and requires intensive care.