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Ask HN: Has anyone heard about steroids being used to treat Covid-19?

3 points by _bxg1 ↗ HN
I heard an anecdote from someone that steroids have been used to successfully mitigate COVID-19 symptoms. I have no idea how credible it is, so I tried to do some research, but I didn't really see any literature either confirming or debunking it. It makes some intuitive sense, given that a big part of the disease is an exaggerated immune system response. But I'm also highly skeptical that such an obvious and cheap solution could go unnoticed by the world for this long, so I tend to think there must be a catch.

Does anybody have knowledge or references on the subject?

9 comments

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davismwfl
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/16-06-2020-who-welcomes...
_bxg1
Yeah, shortly after posting the question I found this coverage of the same results: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/cheap-steroid-first-...
davismwfl
Yep dexamethasone is a very well known drug used in both human and animal medicine. Ironically it is used for breathing issues quite often in animal medicine so it isn't surprising to see it have some benefits with Covid IMO.

Also ivermectin (anti-parasite drug) is being tested with and without the addition of dex which is kinda interesting but only time will tell how the studies come out. But it is interesting. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016635422... has a little about the ivermectin as a treatment.

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giardini
FWIW Ivermectin is not a steroid and discussion of ivermectin here is not relevant to the OP. Many other threads on this forum discuss ivermectin.
davismwfl
If you read my comment you should have seen I pointed out ivermectin is an "anti-parasite drug", not a corticosteroid as dexamethasone is. As for the relevance, the two drugs are being used in combination as a treatment in numerous studies and preliminary results seem promising.
Foober223
> But I'm also highly skeptical

Using steroids to stop inflammation in the lungs is as old as steroids. This is not a special discovery. It's being spun as "news" since anything related to Covid-19 sells news.

phaus
As others have mentioned, steroids are frequently used to treat inflammation. Steroids' impact on whether a person lives or dies because of COVID is usually minimal.

Unfortunately, this has led to a shortage of some steroids, including hydrocortisone. There are people with unrelated medical conditions, like a member of my family, that take it as a replacement for cortisol in order to stay alive.

We have had a pretty rough time finding a place that can actually fill the prescription lately.

franctic
Sorry to hear your family member is struggling with getting medications. Are you based in the US? Purely anecdotal, but I work in an academic medical center and there have been no issues with steroid shortages. If your family member is having trouble to the point of not getting meds, if they live even remotely close to one, they (almost?) all have pharmacies that can fill scripts and I believe hydrocortisone can be prescribed for 90+ days at a time.

Less anecdotally, I’ve seen several COVID based guidelines recommending mail-order scripts — they are less geographically constrained, pretty much always on time and can be filled for similar timeframes, no standing in line etc.

Hope things get easier for your loved one!