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Coronavirus patients in UK hospitals will receive aspirin in a new study to find out if the low-cost drug could prevent deadly blood clotting in the lungs.
Studies have shown that nearly 80% of people who die from Covid-19 suffer from thrombosis – or blood clotting – in the lungs, which prevents oxygen from moving through the body and can be fatal.
The virus is thought to trigger a huge surge in cytokines, a type of protein that signals the liver that more clotting is needed, causing “sticky blood.”
Scientists hope that blood thinners, such as aspirin, can help avoid the devastating clotting that can lead to death. If it proves effective, it would be the first over-the-counter drug that has been shown to impact coronavirus.
Professor Peter Horby, of the University of Oxford and the lead investigator of the recovery process, who is looking at several drugs and treatments, said aspirin was added to their list this week.
Speaking to the Scientific and Technology Committee, Prof Horby said: “This week in Recovery we just added aspirin to the trial because clotting seems to be a big problem.
“Aspirin is a very popular and cheap drug and, if it works, it would be a huge therapeutic boost. Anti-clotting drugs are one area where we have had a gap. “
Research published late last month by the University of Maryland in the United States found that coronavirus patients who took low-dose aspirin daily to protect themselves from cardiovascular disease had a significantly lower risk of complications and death than those. who were not taking the drug.
Aspirin users were less likely to be placed in the ICU or connected to a mechanical ventilator and were more likely to survive infection than hospitalized patients who were not taking aspirin.
However, as the US is not conducting an aspirin trial, the results are only observational and it is not known whether giving aspirin more widely would be helpful.
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