International clinical trials published on Wednesday confirmed the hope that cheap, widely available steroid drugs can help seriously ill patients survive Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Following release of the new data, the World Health Organization on Wednesday strongly recommended steroids for treatment of patients with severe or critical Covid-19 worldwide. But the agency recommended against giving the drugs to patients with mild disease. The new studies include an analysis that pooled data from seven randomized clinical trials evaluating three steroids in over 1,700 patients. That paper and three related studies were published in the journal JAMA, along with an editorial describing the research as an “important step forward in the treatment of patients with Covid-19.”

Source: International New York Times September 02, 2020 09:42 UTC