Corona virus can save patients' lives Steroids: WHO

New delhi date. 06 September 2020, Sunday

As the cases of corona virus are increasing in the world, its drugs are also being discovered. Now, according to a new report, even steroids can save lives in this epidemic. The WHO says steroids can be given to severe patients with corona. Recruitment trials were conducted in several hospitals from Oxford University in the month of June. The trial found that one out of every eight serious people with corona was saved from a steroid called dexamethasone.

In addition to these trials, the results of six other trials have shown that another steroid, called hydrocortisone, also plays an important role in saving lives. Hydrocortisone is cheap as well as readily available. The results of seven trials have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It says both drugs reduce the risk of death in critically ill people by up to 20 per cent.

Jonathan Stern, author of the study and professor of epidemiology at the University of Bristol in England, said: 'Steroids are a cheap and readily available drug and our analysis confirms that in severe cases of corona these drugs prevent patients from dying. These drugs work on people of all ages and classes. '

The recovery trial has been conducted on people from several countries, including Brazil and France. "The results of all these trials show that hydrocortisone is as effective in patients as dexamethasone steroids," said Professor Jonathan Stern. Martin Lander, a professor at Oxford University and deputy chief investigator of the recovery trial, says steroids can be given to a patient without having to wait for a ventilator when he has trouble breathing.

These drugs are already being widely used. About 7-8 per cent of patients were being given dexamethasone in the month of May with the use increasing to about 55 per cent by the end of June. The trial of hydrocortisone was conducted under the leadership of Professor Anthony Gordon of Imperial College London. The trial was performed on 88 hospital patients.

"In intensive care we use steroids to prevent inflammation and serious infections but we know that this also works to suppress the immune system and with this new virus the situation can get worse," said Professor Anthony.

Dexamethasone and hydrocortisone are now increasingly being used on severe patients with corona virus in the NHS and other hospitals around the world.