WHO says drugs that block immune system overload reduce COVID deaths

According to the World Health Organisation, combining two inflammation-blocking medications minimises COVID-19 hospitalisation and fatality risk when compared to standard treatment.

The international health body said in a statement on Tuesday that adding medicines that inhibit an immune protein called interleukin-6 to an already commonly used drug, corticosteroids, decreases the chance of mortality and the requirement for breathing support. The recommendation was based on over 11,000 participants who participated in 27 studies.

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When a COVID-19 patient is seriously ill, interleukin-6 is produced as the immune system of the person will overreact. This encouraged WHO experts to look at the benefits of treating COVID-infected people, who are hospitalised, with drugs that inhibit the disease’s effectiveness.

They discovered that when combined with corticosteroids, the medicines reduced the chance of mortality by 17% as compared to corticosteroids alone. Patients who were not on ventilators had a 21% decreased chance of dying.

“These results, which will lead to better outcomes for patients hospitalised with COVID-19, reflect a huge global effort,” Claire Vale, principal research fellow at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, told Bloomberg.

Patients who received medicines that inhibited interleukin-6 combined with corticosteroids had a reduced chance of dying within 28 days, according to the findings. The likelihood of death in this group was 21%, compared to 25% in those who received conventional treatment. This means that four more patients will survive for every 100 who die.

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“Given the extent of global vaccine inequality, people in the lowest income countries will be the ones most at risk of severe and critical COVID-19,” Janet Diaz, head of clinical management at WHO Health Emergencies, told Bloomberg. “Those are the people these drugs need to reach.”

WHO — in collaboration with King’s College London, University of Bristol, and University College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust — conducted the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.