South Korea urges caution with dexamethasone, backs remdesivir for Covid-19

New Delhi: South Korea has added Gilead's anti-viral drug remdesivir to its coronavirus treatment guidelines in its first revision of recommendations since the outbreak began and urged caution in the use of the steroid therapy dexamethasone.

South Korea, widely praised around the world for its handling of the pandemic without a full lockdown, has reported 12,602 coronavirus cases as of Thursday midnight, with 282 deaths. Remdesivir is designed to hinder certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, from making copies of themselves and potentially overwhelming the body's immune system. The drug previously failed trials as an Ebola treatment.

South Korea's updated guidelines come after a study showed that the cheap and widely used dexamethasone reduced deaths in very sick Covid-19 patients. They advised doctors to take caution until a full study is published."It seems appropriate to administer (dexamethasone), limited to severe cases with the acute respiratory syndrome, as the doctor monitors the patient's condition," Kim Young-ok, director-general of pharmaceutical safety bureau at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, told a briefing on Friday.