Common blood pressure pills taken by millions of Britons could treat Covid-19, according to new research.
The ACE inhibitors and ARBS (angiotensin receptor blockers) improve survival rates – and reduce the severity of infection, scientists say.
The findings published in Current Atherosclerosis reports contradict previous studies that suggest they burn the coronavirus.
They are based on 28,000 Covid-19 patients. Those taking the medications for hypertension were much less likely to die.
Lead author Dr Vassilios Vassiliou, of the University of East Anglia, said: “We found a third of Covid-19 patients with high blood pressure and a quarter of patients in general took an ACE / ARB.
“This is likely due to the increasing risk of infection in patients with comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.
“But the really important thing we showed was that there is no evidence that these medications can increase the severity of Covid-19 as a risk of death.
“On the contrary, we found that there was a significantly lower risk of death and critical outcomes, so they could in fact play a protective role – especially in patients with hypertension.
“Covid-19 high blood pressure patients taking ACE / ARB medication were 0.67 times less likely to have a critical or fatal outcome than those not taking these medications.”
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Doctors sounded the alarm in March about a possible link between the drugs and Covid-19.
Concerns have been raised from animal studies that they may increase the level of the body of a protein called ACE2. The coronavirus tends to invade human cells.
Dr Vassiliou, who is based at Norwich Medical School, said: “We know that patients with cardiovascular disease have a certain risk of severe Covid-19 infection.
“But at the outset of the pandemic, there were concerns specific high blood pressure medications could be linked to worse outcomes for Covid-19 patients.
“We wanted to find out what the impact of these medications is on people with Covid-19.
“We have therefore studied the outcomes for patients taking antihypertensives – and look in particular at what we call ‘critical’ outcomes, such as being admitted to intensive care or being put on a ventilator, and death.”
His team collected data from 19 previous surveys. They compared data from patients taking the drugs with those who were not.
Dr Vassiliou added: “While the world is providing itself with a potential second wave of infection, it is particularly important that we understand the impact that these medications have on Covid-19 patients.
“Our research provides substantial evidence to recommend continued use of these medications if the patients have already taken them.
“However, we are unable to address whether such tablets starting acutely in patients with Covid-19 may improve their prognosis because the mechanism of action may be different.”
The most popular versions of the drugs are Ramipril, Losartan, Lisinopril and Candesartan, according to NHS data.
They were prescribed nearly $ 65 million in England last year and cost the NHS more than £ 100m.
They are given to treat diabetes as high blood pressure. About 10 per cent of people in the UK – some 6.6 million – are estimated to take them regularly.
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