Caution: Dexamethasone injections are very dangerous in patients with mild covid

The third wave of infections COVID-19 continues in the country, and with it a large number of people present symptoms of the disease, which has left more than 200,000 dead so far. Faced with this, many resort to hospitals and others, to the nearest pharmacies to acquire medicines that alleviate their ailments.

Most cases of covid are mild or moderate thanks to vaccines, and doctors recommend the use of some medications such as paracetamol to attenuate the pain and fever generated by the disease.

However, some people with mild symptoms are using other medications that have not been shown to be effective against covid or that should be used only in specific conditions.

Although dexamethasone, a low-cost corticosteroid used for decades, is one of the few drugs that have proven to be effective – to some extent – in treating people with covid, it is important to clarify that its use should only be given in certain circumstances. :

“Dexamethasone has shown that it can have a beneficial effect when administered to covid patients in a peculiar phase: when the patient requires oxygen. When this happens, it means that or multisystemic in the patient, and this inflammation can be combated with glucocorticoids”, explains the medical epidemiologist Álvaro Taype-Rondan.

The inflammation is produced by the so-called ‘cytokine storm’, which is triggered when the immune system responds disproportionately to the pathogen, in this case the coronavirus, and

The international clinical trial Recovery and others that followed showed that drugs from the corticosteroid family reduce mortality by 21% after 28 days in the most severe cases, in those that Therefore, in September 2020, the World Health Organization Health (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended its use in such cases.

Specialists remember that, in addition to being a powerful anti-inflammatory, dexamethasone is an immunosuppressant; that is, it suppresses the immune response. This helps, in severe cases of covid, to stop the action of the organism and, consequently, the inflammation is reduced. But in patients with mild or moderate covid, in whom there is no inflammation, what corticosteroids generate is that they decrease the immune system, thus preventing the body from reacting normally to the infection, which can cause a clinical picture. that would be mild becomes aggravated.

“If corticosteroids are given to patients who are not in the inflammatory phase, that is, those who do not require oxygen and therefore are not hospitalized, what the studies show is that h, that is, increase its mortality, its complications. We are not only talking about dexamethasone, but about prednisone, methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, for the management of covid-19″, adds the doctor Alvaro Taype.

As we showed in a previous report, the infectologist Juan Celis, from the Loreto Regional Hospital, warned that the use of so-called ‘triple injections’, which contain antibiotics and corticosteroids, was becoming widespread in the country, which could be especially dangerous. “Antibiotics do not work against viruses and corticosteroids can aggravate the covid picture if they are not used correctly. The recommendation is that these triple injections are not applied [en las farmacias]”.

“The use of corticosteroids must be based on medical criteria, and although they are used for various problems in addition to covid, as it has various side effects. The general recommendation is that they do not self-medicate and that they monitor their symptoms, and if they worsen, seek medical help. Inadequate intake of any medication can cause severe damage to the body.warns Fredy Yurihuamán, pharmaceutical chemist and Pharmaceutical Care analyst of the General Directorate of Medicines, Supplies and Drugs (Digemid).

The doctor Alvaro Taype adds that there are other medications that should not be used for the specific management of covid: “Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, vitamins… have not been shown to have any benefit in improving the condition of outpatients. There is recent evidence showing that some of them might even increase mortality.”