While researchers scramble to find a cure for Covid-19, it’s also important we have ways to treat patients that are already severely ill from the virus. Recently, new studies have found that cheap steroids can actually be life-saving for Covid patients in intensive care.

The new results, published in JAMA, show eight lives would be saved for every 100 patients treated. The researchers do wish to stress that while these findings were impressive, steroids are not a cure for coronavirus. As reported by the BBC in June, the UK’s Recovery trials found the first drug – a steroid called dexamethasone – could save the lives of people with severe Covid.

The latest study brings together all clinical trials involving steroids on coronavirus patients around the world. It confirms dexamethasone works and that another steroid, hydrocortisone, is equally effective.

So, what do steroids actually do for the body?

Steroids have been found to calm down inflammation and the immune system, which is why they are already used in conditions like arthritis and asthma, as well as in some severe infections. The drugs do not seem to be helpful in the early stages of a coronavirus but have been found to be effective when the disease develops, and the immune system goes into overdrive.