Statins May Reduce the Risk of H1N1 Flu Deaths

In February of this year a Kaiser Permanente critical care doctor reported at a scientific meeting that hospitalized patients with sepsis were less likely to die if they were taking a statin drug for some reason.  Current statin users had a significant lower 30-day mortality compared with non-users, regardless of dose. 

Now a speaker at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting reported on an analysis of the records of 2,800 people who were hospitalized with seasonal flu in  the 2007-2008 flu season;  the data came from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of the patients studied, 801 were taking a statin drug on admission to hospital, and continued to take them during their flu-related illness.  17 patients on statins died within 30 days ((2.1%), compared with 64 who were not taking statins (3.2%).  This represents a considerable reduction in mortality.

It’s recognized that the likely killer in flu deaths is an overwhelming bacterial infection.  These two analytic studies – hospitalized patients with sepsis and hospitalized seasonal flu victims – give hope that a similar benefit will exist in patients with severe H1N1 flu complicated by bacterial infection.  Looks like yet another possible benefit for statins!  Of course, further studies will be required to prove the point.