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WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 4:14
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 17 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“Yesterday, there was the welcome news of positive initial results from the RECOVERY trial in the United Kingdom. Dexamethasone, a common steroid, has been shown to have a beneficial effect on those patients severely ill with COVID-19. According to the early findings shared with WHO, for patients on oxygen alone the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one fifth. And for patients requiring a ventilator, mortality was reduced by about one third.”
3. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“It's exceptionally important that this drug is used under medical supervision. This is not for mild cases. This is not for prophylaxis. This is a very, very powerful anti-inflammatory drug. It can rescue patients who are in very serious condition where their lungs and their cardiovascular system around their lungs may be very inflamed. So, this allows possibly that patients are able to continue getting oxygen into the blood from the lungs for a very critical period by rapidly reducing inflammation at a critical period in the illness.”
4. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“It is not a treatment for the virus itself. It is not a prevention for the virus. In fact, steroids, particularly powerful steroids can be associated with a viral replication. In other words, they can actually, facilitate the division and replication of viruses in human bodies. So it's exceptionally important in this case that this drug is reserved for use in severely ill and critical patients who can benefit from this drug clearly.”
6. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Janet Diaz, Head of Clinical Care, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“The benefit was seen in patients who are on oxygen therapy. So who had already lung injury or those patients that were on ventilation. So there was no benefit seen in the patients that had mild disease. So this study was not for prophylaxis. So I think that is the take home message as you've described Mike.”
7. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“It is one, but of the many breakthroughs we're going to need in order to effectively deal with COVID-19. And as such, we should celebrate that today, but it's still just preliminary data. It's from one study. It's very significant, but we also have to see the real data, the full data. And we thank our colleagues in the UK for briefing us, but we still obviously, and they will be working very hard over the coming days to release detailed data, to get this published in peer reviewed journals. So everybody can see what the results are.”
9. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, Head of R&D Blueprint, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“The internal evidence from the Solidarity/Discovery trial, the external evidence from the Recovery trial and the combined evidence from these large randomised trials bring together suggest that hydroxychloroquine – when compared with the standard of care in the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients – does not result in the reduction of mortality of those patients. Based on this analysis and on the review of the published evidence, the Executive Group of the Solidarity/Recovery Trial has met on two occasions and today we met with all the PIs (principal investigators). After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial.”
11. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“The world has now recorded more than 8 million cases of COVID-19. In the first two months, 85,000 cases were reported. But in the past two months 6 million cases have been reported. There have been more than 435,000 deaths and in the Americas, Africa and South Asia; cases are still rapidly rising.”
13. Wide shot, WHO briefers at podium in press room
The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that show dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, can be lifesaving for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19.
According to the early findings shared with WHO, for patients on oxygen alone the treatment was shown to reduce mortality by about one fifth,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General, at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday (17 Jun). “And for patients requiring a ventilator, mortality was reduced by about one third.”
Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in a range of conditions, including inflammatory disorders and certain cancers. It has been listed on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines since 1977 in multiple formulations and is currently off-patent and affordably available in most countries.
“It's exceptionally important that this drug is used under medical supervision,” said Dr Michael Ryan, WHO’s Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme. “This is not for mild cases. This is not for prophylaxis. This is a very, very powerful anti-inflammatory drug. It can rescue patients who are in very serious condition where their lungs and their cardiovascular system around their lungs may be very inflamed. So, this allows possibly that patients are able to continue getting oxygen into the blood from the lungs for a very critical period by rapidly reducing inflammation at a critical period in the illness.”
Dexamethasone is “not a treatment for the virus itself,” Dr Ryan explaining further that “in fact steroids, particularly powerful steroids can be associated with a viral replication. In other words, they can actually, facilitate the division and replication of viruses in human bodies.”
“It's exceptionally important in this case that this drug is reserved for use in severely ill and critical patients who can benefit from this drug clearly,” Ryan underlined.
The researchers shared initial insights about the results of the trial with WHO, and the full data analysis is expected in the coming days. WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase its overall understanding of this intervention and based on that, the WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19.
“It is one, but of the many breakthroughs we're going to need in order to effectively deal with COVID-19,” said Dr Ryan.
As of 16 June, WHO reported more than eight million case of COVID-19 globally with over 440 000 people dying with the virus.
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