Statins may help older coronavirus patients avoid symptoms; COVID-19

Statins may help older coronavirus patients avoid symptoms; COVID-19 more than respiratory illness

Nancy Lapid
6 MIN READ


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.


FILE PHOTO: A computer image created by Nexu Science Communication together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus which is the type of virus linked to COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus linked to the Wuhan outbreak, shared with Reuters on February 18, 2020. NEXU Science Communication/via REUTERS
Statins may help protect frail older people from severe COVID-19 symptoms

Widely-used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may be associated with substantially fewer symptoms in older, frail COVID-19 patients, a small study suggests. Among 154 coronavirus patients at two nursing homes, those who took a statin, such as Lipitor, were nearly three times more likely to be free of symptoms during their infection than those who did not, researchers in Belgium found. There was also slight trend toward lower risks for lengthy hospital stays and death that was not statistically significant. The study was not randomized, so more formal trials are needed to definitively prove that statins affect outcomes. "In the current absence of other valuable therapies and considering the benefit-risk balance, an older person living in a nursing home could consider taking a statin if at high COVID-19 infection risk," the authors advised. The study, reported on Friday on the medRxiv website, has not yet been peer-reviewed. (bit.ly/2X3K57g)

COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease


The desperate need of severely ill coronavirus patients for mechanical ventilators to help them breathe had led many people to think of COVID-19 primarily as a respiratory disease, at least in adults. But among nearly 5,500 coronavirus patients in the largest New York health system, more than one in three hospitalized COVID-19 patients developed acute kidney injuries, and nearly 15% required dialysis, researchers reported on Thursday in the medical journal Kidney International. Other research teams have reported that the virus can infect cells in the small intestine. And on Wednesday, researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that autopsies of 27 people who died of COVID-19 showed the virus in tissues of 17 hearts, 17 livers, 8 brains and the kidneys of 13 people. There have also been reports of the virus causing blood clots that can lead to strokes. ( bit.ly/3fYw9o3 bit.ly/2Z6KXLe)

Convalescent plasma is safe but not conclusively proven to help