Cholesterol Drugs May Improve Flu Survival

The cholesterol-lowering statin drugs Lipitor and Zocor may be a cost-effective and abundant new treatment for swine flu. In a recent study, patients who were taking these prescriptions, when hospitalized for seasonal flu, were twice as likely to survive as those who were not; however, this may not prove that statins cure the flu or that beginning a treatment with statins after catching the flu will help. Current vaccines for swine flu are slow to reach the public and treatments such as Tamiflu are being reserved for only the sickest patients, so finding a possible treatment that is so widely used already is a step in the right direction

The H1N1 virus is so damaging mostly because it causes severe inflammation and an overreaction of the immune system. Statins may be so promising because they have been proven to reduce inflammation along with cholesterol. These drugs have not only been shown to help with influenza, but other serious illnesses such as pneumonia and other bacterial bloodstream infections.

Even though statins are usually prescribed to those with heart-related problems, only 1.5% of patients who were hospitalized with H1N1 died as opposed to 3% who were not taken these cholesterol-lowering drugs. For this reason, using these medications on seriously ill patients as a last-ditch effort can only help the situation, not hurt it.

This article interested me so much because it shows how medications that Americans take in their everyday life may do more than just treat the condition that they were prescribed for. Members of my family have a history of high cholesterol and have taken both Lipitor and Zocor, so to know that these two drugs are beneficial in more ways than one is comforting. Hopefully, this will be proven as a sound treatment for swine flu so more individuals can be treated and relieved of their symptoms.

Link to Article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091029/ap_on_he_me/us_med_swine_flu_treatment


Brittany Guth
VTPP 434-501