Several studies on reducing the severity of Covid-19 have been published and a recent study shows that medication for high blood pressure could improve coronavirus survival rates and reduce the severity of the infection.
The research paper has come out after the researchers studied about 28,000 patients who took antihypertensives, a drug used to treat hypertension. They analysed data from 19 studies related to Coronavirus and ACEi/ARB medications. The journal Current Atherosclerosis Reports published the study.
The risk of severe Covid-19 illness and even death was reduced for patients with hypertension who were taking Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) or Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARB).
Lead author Vassilios Vassiliou (University of East Anglia, UK) said that there was much concern in the beginning of the pandemic that some drugs used for high blood pressure could have adverse impacts. This had prompted to go for a study on the impact of drugs used by people having high blood pressure on covid-19.
The researchers compared data from Coronavurus patients who were taking ACEi/ARB with those who were not. The main focus was on whether they experienced ‘critical’ events like admission to intensive care and invasive or non-invasive ventilation and death.
A third of Covid-19 patients with high blood pressure and a quarter of patients overall were taking an ACEi/ARBs, However, the authors say that they could not come across any evidence that these medications might increase the severity of Covid-19 or risk of death.
Meanwhile, they also claimed that there was a significantly lower risk of death and critical outcomes. As such patients with high blood pressure who were taking ACEi/ARB medications were 0.67 times less likely to have a critical or fatal outcome than those not taking these medications.
