ELI5. If steroid drugs like Prednisone are essentially immunosuppressants, how do they aid in the treatment of diseases like Pneumonia etc. Don’t they in effect kick the body when it’s already down, making it harder to fight off the infection?
In: Biology
Not a doctor. Pneumonia (normally is bacterial based) and is treated by antibiotics primarily. Antibiotics help in killing the bacteria and prevent in their multiplying more and more.
Steroids is a supplimentary drug used to either reduce inflammation or quell an upcoming cytokine storm. Cytokine storm is when the antibodies / immune cells are produced in such abundant quantity that the risk of collateral damage becomes very high (them killing healthy cells also along with the infected cells). To reduce this risk – steroids are used to suppress the immune response of the body and prevent collateral damage to the body (and multi organ failure).
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