Asia

Blood Pressure Medicine May Help Counter COVID-19

Drugs commonly used to fight high blood pressure are reportedly having a positive affect against those with severe forms of COVID-19.

When the virus first gained worldwide attention it was thought those with respiratory or cardiopulmonary issues may be amongst the worst affected.

It was, and is, still the case that people affected by hypertension still have twice the risk of death faced by otherwise healthy individuals if they catch coronavirus.

However, patients with or without hypertension taking some form of anti-blood pressure medication have now been shown to have a much lower chance of death when compared to those affected by the virus taking no such drugs.

“We were quite surprised that these results did not support our initial hypothesis; in fact, the results were in the opposite direction, with a trend in favor of ACE inhibitors and ARBs,” said Fei Li, one of those behind the research at the Xijing Hospital in Xi’an, China.

Just how this affects future treatment of COVID-19 worldwide remains to be seen, but it is understood that in the U.S., the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association and Heart Failure Society has already recommended that any cardio-patients continue with the hypertension prescriptions they already have.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.