Patients hospitalised because of pneumonia are at less risk of
dying from the disease if they have been taking the widely used
cholesterol-lowering drugs 'statins' before hospital admission.
These results, published today in the Open Access journal
Respiratory Research, suggest another beneficial use of statins,
which are prescribed to an increasing number of patients to
prevent and treat high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and
vascular disease. Pneumonia is the seventh most common cause of
death and the leading cause of death from infection in the USA,
where it kills up to 40,000 people every year – those most at
risk are very young children, elderly people and patients with
underlying health problems such as AIDS or chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (CPOD). The disease is caused by viruses or
bacteria, which are becoming resistant to the antibiotics used
to treat bacterial pneumonia. Eric Mortensen and colleagues,
from the University of Texas Health Centre at San Antonio
measured the risk of dying