Statins are normally used to decrease cholesterol levels but may also prevent deaths in severe cases of the flu.
According to researchers, more and more studies suggest that statins (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor) reduce the number of deaths in cases of severe infections. However, the results do not warrant a large-scale use of statins before confirming the data in controlled studies.
Statins are beneficial when used with vaccines or antiviral drugs as they most likely decrease inflammation in the body during a viral infection.
For now, it is unclear if these same results would be obtained with the influenza A virus (H1N1) as these results were obtained before the appearance of the swine flu and the 2007, 2008 flu season.