Sex drug hailed for helping heart patients

Sex drug Viagra, famed for reviving flagging libidos, is being credited with helping doctors prolong the lives of hundreds of heart disease patients.

Made with the same key ingredients as the impotence cure, a new drug is being made available to people suffering from a rare high blood pressure condition which can kill within two to three years if left untreated.

The disease known as pulmonary arterial hypertension attacks one of the body’s major arteries bringing on heart failure.

But pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has taken the basic make-up of chemical aphrodisiac Viagra and turned it into a pill called Revatio to treat PAH sufferers.

Dr Sean Gaine, consultant respiratory physician at the Mater Hospital Dublin, said the drug offers real hope to patients.

“Five years ago, only 48% of people diagnosed with PAH would have lived for three years,” the senior doctor said.

“Now, that figure is about 89%. Revatio offers real hope to people who suffer from PAH and this is a very exciting new development in the area of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

“We are rapidly moving from a disease for which there was no cure to one where the prognosis is significantly improved.”

PAH is a rare and fatal disorder characterised by dangerously high pressure in the blood vessels that lead from the heart to the lungs. And Revatio eases the condition by helping to improve blood flow.

The symptoms of PAH include fatigue, chest pain, breathlessness and dizziness, which often reduces or prevents normal daily activities for patients. It is estimated to affect approximately 100,000 people worldwide, and is more likely to affect women between the ages of 20 and 40.

In Ireland there are about 200 people who suffer from PAH, according to figures from the Mater Hospital, and many of them were not expected to live for more than two or three years after the disease took hold.

The cost of Revatio is being reimbursed from the beginning of this month under the High Tech Medicines Scheme.

Dr Gaine added that early intervention could be decisive in saving lives: “It is important that people are aware of this condition as early diagnosis allows for the initiation of effective therapies.”