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Health Check: Covid-19: Steroid drug reduces deaths

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Female researcher in a laboratory

2020/06/17 GMT

Covid-19: Steroid drug reduces deaths

BBC World Service - Health Check, Covid-19: Steroid drug reduces deaths

Trials of a steroid show it can reduce the deaths of those on ventilators by one third

Some good news at last – A widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus. It cuts the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. Claudia Hammond discusses the results with Clare Wilson from the New Scientist.  

In the hunt for a treatment for Covid-19, health workers will take chloroquine as part of a large trial that is about to start. Claudia talks to Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, director of research at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

The surge of Covid-19 cases in huge cities like Mumbai has brought attention to a long-standing problem – the lack of sanitation and access to toilets. Health Check reporter Chhavi Sachdev reports. 

What effect does immobility have on our brains? A new study offers a detailed insight from 12 fit astronauts subjected to a battery of tests in a microgravity simulator. Ivana Rosenzweig, head of the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at Kings College London explains how her work has important implications for understanding astronaut behaviour.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer:  Caroline Steel

(Photo: A female researcher testing a potential vaccine in a laboratory. Credit: Sam Thomas/Getty Images.)

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