'Most of the city is evacuating': Gridlock on Alberta highway after evacuation order in Fort McMurray
Four Fort McMurray neighbourhoods were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday as a wildfire gets closer to the city.
The World Health Organization on Tuesday recommended using arthritis drugs Actemra from Roche and Kevzara from Sanofi with corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients after data from some 11,000 patients showed they cut the risk of death.
A WHO group evaluating therapies concluded treating severe and critical COVID-19 patients with these so-called interleukin-6 antagonists that block inflammation "reduces the risk of death and the need for mechanical ventilation."
According to the WHO analysis, the risk of dying within 28 days for patients getting one of the arthritis drugs with corticosteroids such as dexamethasone is 21%, compared with an assumed 25% risk among those who got standard care. For every 100 such patients, four more will survive, the WHO said.
Moreover, the risk of progressing to mechanical ventilation or death was 26% for those getting the drugs and corticosteroids, compared with 33% in those getting standard care. The WHO said that meant for every 100 such patients, seven more will survive without mechanical ventilation.
"We have updated our clinical care treatment guidance to reflect this latest development," WHO Health Emergencies official Janet Diaz said.
The analysis covered 10,930 patients, of whom 6,449 got one of the drugs and 4,481 got standard care or a placebo. It was done with King’s College London, University of Bristol, University College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week issued emergency use approval for Actemra for COVID-19. That's after its off-label use in the pandemic drove up sales by around a third to some US$3 billion in 2020.
Kevzara sales rose 30% last year, Sanofi reported.
Still, testing Actemra and Kevzara for COVID-19 patients involved trial and error, as several failures emerged as the companies tried out the medicines on different patient groups.
The WHO also called for more to be done to boost access to such medicines in the lowest-income countries now facing surging COVID-19 cases and virus variants, coupled with inadequate vaccine supplies.
"Those are the people these drugs need to reach," Diaz said.
Four Fort McMurray neighbourhoods were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday as a wildfire gets closer to the city.
Less than a week after two public sculptures featuring a livestream between Dublin, Ireland, and New York City debuted, 'inappropriate behaviour' in real-time interactions between people in the two cities has prompted a temporary shutdown.
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Saskatchewan RCMP have revealed that a historic sexual assault investigation has led to the discovery of alleged crimes against children dating back to 2005.
Nearly 1,000 wildfires have burned across Canada so far this year. Here's an overview of the situation in Canada.
King Charles III has unveiled the first portrait of the monarch completed since he assumed the throne, a vivid image that depicts him in the bright red uniform of the Welsh Guards against a background of similar hues.
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An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said, 'So I raped you,' has been detained in France after a three-year search.
Captain John Tavares scored 15 seconds into overtime and saved his teammates some embarrassment as Canada held on for a 6-5 win over Austria on Tuesday at the world hockey championship.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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