COVID-19, better known as Coronavirus, is still spreading fear across the globe. Close to 2 thousand people have died and tens of thousands more have been infected. There are no vaccines and there is no cure, even though more and more people are recovering completely. There is, however, one treatment that probably should be avoided – steroids.

We first heard about the COVID-19 back in December 2019. There were signs that it may spread and become a huge epidemic, but it was no contained properly in the beginning and hundreds and hundreds of people have died. Now cases have been confirmed in more than 20 countries and it is likely to continue to spread and kill people for the coming months.

Scientists are rushing to find the most effective treatment, but for now doctors have to use what they have available. And what they have is steroids, which are commonly used to reduce inflammation in the lungs. COVID-19, like other member of the coronavirus family MERS and SARS, causes lung inflammation, which prompts doctors to use steroids. However, now scientists from the University of Edinburgh say that using steroids against coronaviruses might be a bad idea.

Scientists conducted a retrospective study of critically-ill patients with MERS. They found that those patients, who received steroids, needed additional treatments and were found to take longer to clear the virus from their bodies. Similar findings were marked in studies about SARS – those who took steroids needed more recovery time. How could this be?

The symptoms of COVID-19. Image credit: Mikael Häggström via Wikimedia

To clarify, scientists are not discounting steroids completely. They should still be administered to treat conditions such as asthma and other inflammatory diseases. However, in cases of infections of coronaviruses, steroids should not be used, unless further research will prove otherwise.