A new analysis shows that widely available steroids reduce the risk of death from COVID-19 by up to one-third.
Research conducted by the World Health Organization and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined the effect of corticosteroids in seven different clinical trials.
The analysis included 1,703 critically ill patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, of whom 678 received the steroid and 1,025 received either a placebo or usual care. After four weeks, 33% of patients on steroids had died, versus 41% of patients who received a placebo or usual care. The analysis found that the difference resulted in a 34% decline in the risk of death.
The study backs up previous research from Oxford University that found dexamethasone, a low-dose steroid treatment, reduced the risk of death by one-third for COVID-19 patients on ventilators.
Steroids do not eliminate the coronavirus. Rather, they reduce the ability of a person’s immune system to attack the lungs, a potentially fatal condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome.
