In a tremendous demonstration of global collaboration, clinician-scientists have pooled data from 121 hospitals in eight countries to find that inexpensive, widely available steroids improve the odds that very sick COVID-19 patients will survive the illness.

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The findings were made through the "Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform-Community Acquired Pneumonia" (REMAP-CAP) trial and are reported today in JAMA as part of a four-article package. The World Health Organization is updating its COVID-19 treatment guidance as a result.

REMAP-CAP is one of seven randomized control trials to test corticosteroidsa class of drug that lowers inflammation and modulates immune system activityfor treating COVID-19 in critically ill patients. An analysis combining all the trial data reinforces the June results of the UK RECOVERY trial, which found the steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths by 29% in ventilated COVID-19 patients.