Steroids reduce death risk of COVID-19, study shows

Anti-inflammatory steroids can reduce the risk of death in severely ill COVID-19 patients by 20 percent, according to analysis from researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

The researchers found that three treatments in the family of corticosteroid drugs－namely dexamethasone, hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone－improved outcomes when administered to critically ill COVID-19 patients.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved a meta-analysis of seven trials that looked at the use of steroid treatments to assist in recovery from novel coronavirus infection across 1,703 critically ill patients.