Taking statins may prevent f lu vaccine from working

TAKING statins may put people at increased risk of falling ill with flu, researchers have warned.

The cholesterol-busting drugs, taken by millions of Britons, seem to stop flu vaccines from working properly.

According to two major studies published today, people who take statins have a significantly reduced immune response to the vaccines.

If true, the findings could have serious implications for public health campaigns in Britain, which have prioritised both flu vaccines and statin use in recent years. Crucially, both treatments are aimed at the same group of elderly people.

The drug is taken by at least 7million people in Britain a year, but the NHS last year changed its guidance in an attempt to persuade more doctors to prescribe the drugs.

But the authors of the new research

‘Lower the immune response’

suggest that as well as reducing cholesterol, statins alter the way the immune system works.

Dr Steven Black of University of California, who led one of the studies, said: ‘Apparently, statins interfere with the response to influenza vaccine and lower the immune response, and this would seem to also result in a lower effectiveness of influenza vaccines.’

His study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, showed that among 7,000 adults over the age 65, statin users had a significantly reduced immune response to the vaccines.

In the second study, a team from Emory University in Atlanta looked at data from 140,000 people and found that vaccines were not as effective at preventing serious respiratory illness among patients taking statins.

Dr Saad Omer, the lead author, said: ‘We found that the effectiveness of flu vaccine in older people may be compromised somewhat if they are on statins.’

Rationing watchdog Nice issued guidance last year saying that anyone with a 10 per cent chance of having a heart attack should be eligible to take the drugs. It means that 17million adults – nearly all people over the age of 40 – are now eligible to take the drugs.

At the same time, the NHS is campaigning to persuade more people to take the flu vaccine. It is available for free to over-65s, anyone with a long-term heart disease, or anyone who is very obese – all of whom are also usually advised to take statins.

If results from the US studies are confirmed, changing the make-up of flu vaccines could stop the problem. That would probably require the drugs to include ‘adjuvants’ – substances that would boost its effect.

Alternatively, using a high- dose vaccine may work, but that may involve a greater risk of side effects.