Volgens Forbes gaat het slechts om 8% verbetering door corticosteroïden t.o.v. placebo / gewone behandeling. Uit het artikel blijkt duidelijk hoe naarstig men op zoek is naar iets dat helpt tegen ards. (Dat wisten we al).
Steroid Use Cuts Covid-19 Deaths, Gets WHO Backing
Karen Robinson-Jacobs
Karen Robinson-JacobsForbes Staff
Business
I cover breaking news with an emphasis on race.
TOPLINE
The World Health Organization Wednesday recommended the use of certain steroids, called corticosteroids, to treat severely or critically ill Covid-19 patients, based on the results of a series of clinical trials around the globe that showed the use of widely available steroids could cut mortality rates by as much as 8 percentage points.
A lab technician uses a multichannel pipette dropper during coronavirus vaccine research at the Valneva SA laboratories in Vienna, Austria.
A lab technician uses a multichannel pipette dropper during coronavirus vaccine research at the ... [+] © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP
KEY FACTS
The guidance, which follows positive reports on steroid use in June, comes amid the break-neck global race for effective treatments and cures for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which as of early Wednesday had sickened nearly 26 million globally and resulted in 858,072 deaths worldwide.
The results of seven randomized clinical trials with 1,703 critically ill patients with Covid-19, with a median age of 60, were combined to estimate the link between use of corticosteroids vs usual care or placebo, and the risk of death after about a month, according to a news release from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Of the patients studied, 647 died, but the “all-cause mortality was lower among patients who received corticosteroids compared with those who received usual care or placebo,” the release said.
There were 222 deaths among the 678 patients treated with corticosteroids (or 32.7%) and 425 deaths among the 1025 patients given usual care or placebo (or 41.5%), according to the Journal, which noted that the trials were conducted in 12 countries from February 26 to June 9.
The therapy is recommended for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, septic shock or other conditions that would normally require therapy such as mechanical ventilation, and in patients showing signs of severe respiratory distress.
The news comes after some medical professionals, particularly at smaller hospitals, worried about having enough ventilators as Covid-19 cases surged during the summer.