The Journal of Infectious Diseases has a paper (free full text
here) and editorial on statins and influenza. It's another observational study that finds that treatment with statins is associated with decreased mortality in persons with influenza. Over 3,000 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza requiring hospitalization in 10 states were analyzed in this study by CDC investigators. Treatment with statins was associated with a 41% reduction in mortality when adjusted for age, race, comorbid conditions, influenza vaccination and treatment with antivirals.
So when I take my dose of simvastatin tonight, I'll try to remember that this little pill may keep me alive when the next influenza pandemic hits. And speaking of flu, it's been a very slow season so far. At my hospital we've had only 2 confirmed cases, and those were in November.
Photo: Eastern Connecticut State University
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for submitting your comment to the Controversies blog. To reduce spam, all comments will be reviewed by the blog moderator prior to publishing. However, all legitimate comments will be published, whether they agree with or oppose the content of the post.