Cheap steroids reduce the risk of death by 20% in critically-ill virus patients

Cheap and readily available steroids have been found to reduce the risk of death in critically ill coronavirus patients by 20 per cent, according to a study.

Cheap steroids reduce risk of death in critically-ill virus patients.

An international team of researchers analysed seven trials involving three different types of anti-inflammatory corticosteroids.

The study, which was co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and analysed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) at the University of Bristol, looked at patient mortality over a 28-day period after treatment.

It found that treatment with one of three types of corticosteroid led to an estimated 20 per cent reduction in the risk of death.

Researchers said it was equivalent to about 68 per cent of critically ill patients surviving after treatment with the steroids, compared to approximately 60 per cent surviving without them.

The results of the study, which involved the drugs dexamethasone, hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone, were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Prof Jonathan Sterne, at the University of Bristol, said: “Steroids are a cheap and readily available medication, and our analysis has confirmed they are effective in reducing deaths amongst the most severely affected by Covid-19. The results were consistent across the trials and show benefit regardless of age or sex.”

He explained findings pointed to “eight fewer deaths for every a hundred critically ill patients assigned to corticosteroids”.

The seven control trials recruited 1,703 critically ill coronavirus patients from 12 countries from February to June.

The study included patients who were taking part in the Oxford University-based Recovery trial, which used the drug dexamethasone. Patients were randomised to either receive one of the three drugs or a placebo.

Researchers said the mortality results were consistent across the seven trials, with dexamethasone and hydrocortisone giving “similar effects”.

There were too few patients involved in tests of methylprednisolone to enable researchers to estimate its impact.

The study found the steroids benefited patients regardless of whether they were on a ventilator.

But researchers said it appeared to have a greater effect on those who did not require medication to support their blood pressure.

The Recovery trial, which used dexamethasone, found the drug reduced deaths by up to a third among patients on ventilators, and by a fifth for those on oxygen.

Scientists from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Spain, the UK and the USA were involved in the study.

Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Oxford, who leads on the Recovery trial, said: "These drugs have been around for decades, they are the sort of drugs that every medical student learns almost as soon as they open a clinical pharmacology text book."

He said dexamethasone and hydrocortisone, which can be taken orally or intravenously, were "widely available, cheap, well understood drugs".

As an example, he said treating 12 people with dexamethasone costs around £60.

But he warned that the "impressive" results "are not sufficient to lead to a complete resumption ... of life as we knew it".

He said that social distancing and wearing face masks "remain as important as ever".

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