
Ask HN: Has anyone heard about steroids being used to treat Covid-19? - _bxg1
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&#x27;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&#x27;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.<p>Does anybody have knowledge or references on the subject?
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davismwfl
[https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/16-06-2020-who-
welcomes...](https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/16-06-2020-who-welcomes-
preliminary-results-about-dexamethasone-use-in-treating-critically-ill-
covid-19-patients)

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_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-...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/cheap-steroid-first-drug-
shown-reduce-death-covid-19-patients)

~~~
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...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011)
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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

