Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Browne for raising the important matter of dexamethasone. As he rightly says, this is something we have been hearing an awful lot more about in the last 24 hours. In March, the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy, RECOVERY, trial was established as a randomised clinical trial to test a range of potential treatments for Covid-19, including a low dose of dexamethasone, which is a steroid treatment. More than 11,500 patients were enrolled at more than 175 NHS hospitals in the UK. A total of 2,104 patients were randomly chosen to receive 6 mg of the drug once a day for ten days. They were compared with 4,321 patients randomly selected for the usual care alone. As the Deputy says, among the latter group, 28-day mortality was highest among those who required ventilation, intermediate among those who required oxygen only and lowest among those who did not require any respiratory intervention. Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one third among ventilated patients and by a fifth among patients receiving oxygen only. There was no benefit among those patients who did not require respiratory support. Based on these results, the University of Oxford indicates that one death would be prevented by the treatment of approximately eight ventilated patients or approximately 25 patients requiring oxygen alone.

There was a significant trend showing that the greatest benefit was among those patients requiring ventilation. However, the university states that it is important to recognise that it found no evidence of benefit for patients who did not require oxygen and the study did not examine patients outside of a hospital setting. We are awaiting the full details of the study. I have today asked the public health experts in my Department to contact the HSE about our plans to make this already existing treatment available. Deputy Browne makes a valid point and I will revert to him in writing on the matter.

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