Studies around the world have confirmed that steroids can save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to new recommendations from the World Heath Organization that doctors should give them to severely ill patients. In June, the Recovery trial run in most NHS hospitals and led by Oxford University found that the lives of one in eight people sick enough from Covid-19 to need a ventilator could be saved by a steroid called dexamethasone. Now, combined results from that trial and six others have confirmed those findings and established that at least one other equally cheap and widely available steroid, hydrocortisone, also saves lives. In May, about 7-8% of Covid hospital patients were getting dexamethasone, and by the end of June it was about 55%, said Landray. In severe cases of Covid-19, the immune system can go into overdrive, attacking the body’s own tissues and causing inflammation.

Source: The Guardian September 02, 2020 14:08 UTC