Steroid safety under review

The safety of steroids is to be investigated by the European Commission following campaigning from relatives of steroid victims.

The Public Health Unit in Luxembourg has asked for more information after receiving a 2,000 signature petition from Group Action into Steroid Prescribing [Gasp]. The group believes that one type of the drug - cortico-steroids, which are popular with asthma sufferers - has caused several deaths and thousands of injuries. Art McConnell, whose nine-year-old daughter, Lexie, died from chickenpox after being prescribed the cortico-steroid drug Prednisolone for an eye infection in 1992, said: "[The drug] has to be much more closely supervised and probably on a restricted list. Steroids are being issued without any warnings."