{"id":267819,"date":"2020-09-05T06:02:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T10:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267819"},"modified":"2020-09-05T06:02:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T10:02:04","slug":"steroids-reduce-deaths-of-critically-ill-covid-19-patients-who-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/05\/steroids-reduce-deaths-of-critically-ill-covid-19-patients-who-confirms\/","title":{"rendered":"Steroids reduce deaths of critically ill COVID-19 patients, WHO confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: A single vial of dexamethasone phosphate for injection (Photo by LHcheM – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The finding strengthens evidence that clinicians should give severely sick people the drugs
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In June, a large study in the United Kingdom suggested that\u00a0the steroid dexamethasone<\/a>\u00a0could help reduce the risk of death for critically ill COVID-19 patients. Now, more evidence suggests that steroids are an effective weapon against the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the World Health Organization\u00a0combined data from seven randomized clinical trials<\/a>\u00a0for severely or critically ill COVID-19 patients treated with steroids versus standard care or a placebo up to June 9. The trials used the steroids hydrocortisone, dexamethasone or methylprednisolone.<\/p>\n

People who were on ventilators when their clinical trial started had a 30 percent chance of dying from the virus if given steroids compared with a 38 percent chance on standard care or a placebo, researchers report September 2 in\u00a0JAMA<\/em>. Results were even more promising for critically ill people who were not on ventilators: Those taking steroids had a 23 percent chance of death compared with a 42 percent for people taking a placebo or getting standard care.<\/p>\n

Results of three of the studies included in the combined analysis \u2014 one from\u00a0France<\/a>\u00a0testing hydrocortisone, a trial of dexamethasone in\u00a0Brazil<\/a>\u00a0and an\u00a0international study<\/a>\u00a0of hydrocortisone \u2014 were published at the same time in\u00a0JAMA<\/em>. Those and other trials in the WHO analysis were stopped early because it wouldn\u2019t have been ethical to continue and deny some sick patients steroids once the U.K. study found them effective.<\/p>\n

Based on the results of the combined analysis, the\u00a0WHO recommended<\/a>\u00a0on September 2 that doctors give dexamethasone or hydrocortisone to severely and critically ill COVID-19 patients, but not to people with milder illness. Giving steroids to people with moderate or mild cases might dampen the immune system too much, allowing the virus to do more damage. The U.S. National Institutes of Health have also recommended use of steroids for hospitalized people who\u00a0need extra oxygen<\/a>\u00a0or are on ventilators.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> is originally published on Science News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The finding strengthens evidence that clinicians should give severely sick people the drugs In June, a large study in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":267820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","mauthors-tina-hesman-saey","mauthors-science-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267821,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267819\/revisions\/267821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}