ABC World News (12/14, story 5, 1:35, Sawyer) reported a study
from the Journal of Infectious Diseases found statins "are...a kind of
secret weapon against a lethal case of the flu, cutting the risk of
death nearly in half." The researchers "looked at 3,000 people who were
hospitalized with the flu in 2007 and 2008; 150 of those people
died...and found, people who were already taking a statin were 40% less
likely to die." According to ABC, "one of the reasons people die from
the flu is, your body has this massive inflammatory response. So, by
reducing inflammation, they may save
lives."
HealthDay
(12/15, Gardner) reports that according to a "preliminary study in the
Journal of Infectious Diseases finds that patients hospitalized with
influenza were less likely to die if they were taking a statin, compared
with their peers who weren't taking one of the drugs." The study found
that "Patients on statins were 41 percent less likely to die, the study
found, even after adjusting for age, the presence of heart, lung
and/or kidney disease, whether or not they had had a flu shot, or
whether or not they had received antiviral medications such as Tamiflu
(oseltamivir)." However, the authors noted some limitations to the
study stating they did not "know if patients taking statins were already
healthier than people not taking statins."
"Among patients admitted with laboratory-confirmed influenza, those who
used statins before or during the hospital stay had lower odds of dying
within 30 days (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.92), according to Ann Thomas,
MD, MPH, of the Oregon Public Health Division in Portland, and
colleagues," MedPage Today
(12/15, Neale) reports. Edward Walsh, MD, of Rochester General
Hospital in New York, wrote in an accompanying editorial that
"without randomized trial evidence, 'the potential benefit will remain
debatable and open to the same criticisms regarding the value of
influenza vaccines in the elderly and the value of antiviral therapy in
hospitalized persons.'"
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