COVID-19: Steroids can help the sickest patients, studies show Gunmen shoot I dead 16 worshippers in Nigeria

Corticosteroids should now be the first-line treatment for critically ill patients,

ABUJA - Gunmen in

the authors added. The only other drug shown to be effec

Nigeria’s Niger state have

tive in seriously ill patients, and only modestly at that, is

shot dead at least 16 wor

remdesivir.

Steroids like dexameth

shippers in a mosque.

asone, hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone are of

A number of others have

ten used by doctors to tamp down the body’s immune

been wounded in the attack in

system, alleviating inflammation, swelling and pain.

Ba’are village.

Many Covid-19 patients die not of the virus, but of the body’s overreaction to the in

The attackers opened fire

fection.

The analysis of pooled

on the Muslim worshippers

data found that steroids were linked with a one-third

during early morning prayers

reduction in deaths among Covid-19 patients. Dexa

on Wednesday, Niger state

methasone produced the strongest results: a 36 per

government official Ahmed

cent drop in deaths in 1,282 patients treated in three sep

Ibrahim Matane said.

Dexamethasone was the first steroid shown to be effective arate trials.

in severely ill Covid-19 patients. In June,

He said the motorbike-riding gunmen also shot and killed one other person on the road as they zoomed off.

Residents have now deserted the remote community following the killings.

In neighbouring Katsina state, another group of gunmen have shot dead a senior government official at his home.

Police say they’re investigating the killing of Rabe Nasir, the state commissioner of science and technology.

The region is grappling with

The World Health Organization said steroids should be used to treat patients

a wave a kidnappings for ran

hospitalized with severe Covid-19, but advised against giving the drugs to patients with mild cases.

som and killings by armed criminal gangs. This shows us

steroids are Earlier in the week, at clearly least ben

eficial in this

23 travellers were ambushed population

and should by gunmen and burnt clearly to be death given, unless you absolutely can’t for some

inside a bus in Sokoto state. –

reason, which needs

BBC.

to be a pretty rare occasion.