Health DG cautions public against using dexamethasone sans doctor’s orders

Following trials that showed dexamethasone was effective in treating serious cases of Covid-19, the Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has advised the public against using the steroid without a doctor’s prescription.

This, he said, is due to the drug’s side effects.

“We have to be careful in terms of usage of this medicine because it has its side effects and complications as well. So the doctors have to actually prescribe this.

“So we advise the public to not use dexamethasone without a prescription,” he stressed.

Among the side effects of the drug are Cushing Syndrome, a loss of bone density and muscle weakness.

Caused by a rise in cortisol levels, Cushing Syndrome can lead to high blood pressure, bone loss as well as Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers from Oxford University announced yesterday that their trials suggested that dexamethasone was able to reduce the death rate among Covid-19 patients with breathing difficulties by about one-third.

They said the drug did not appear to have an effect on patients without breathing difficulties.

The drug is the first to be proven in large, well-designed trials, to be effective in reducing the death rate amongst Covid-19 patients.

Previously, the experimental antiviral drug Remdesivir showed promise in improving outcomes for Covid-19 patients when administered early in the course of the disease, but had negligible impact on the death rate.

Further testing for Remdesivir is still underway, including in Malaysia as part of the Solidarity Trial led by the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham congratulated the researchers on the dexamethasone discovery during today’s briefing.

He also shared that Malaysia had been administering the readily available drug since the Covid-19 outbreak began.

“We have been using about 4 milligrams of it twice or three times a day for a maximum of five days.

“From day one we have been using the medicine,” he said.

Dexamethasone is typically used to treat conditions such as skin diseases, allergies and asthma.  - Mkini