Covid patients remain at high risk of death for at least 18 months after infection. This is suggested by a study conducted on nearly 160,000 people and published in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). According to the authors, scientists from the University of Hong Kong, Covid-19 is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease and death in the short and long term. Compared to uninfected individuals, Covid patients were up to 81 times more likely to die in the first 3 weeks of infection and remained 5 times more likely up to 18 months later.
also read
“Covid patients – explains Ian CK Wong of the University of Hong Kong, author of the paper – were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular diseases” than study participants who were not affected by the virus, “which may have contributed to their higher risk for the results has – emphasizes the expert – therefore indicates that patients with Covid should be monitored for at least a year after recovery from an acute illness in order to diagnose the cardiovascular complications of the infection that are part of Long Covid”.
The study compared the incidence of cardiovascular disease and death in infected and uninfected individuals recruited before December 2020, when vaccines were unavailable in the UK. More than 7,500 patients diagnosed with the infection from 16 March 2020 to 30 November 2020 have been identified by UK Biobank. Each was matched to up to 10 Covid-free individuals and a historical pre-pandemic cohort (March to November 2018) during the study period (which ran from March 2020 to August 2021). Each non-Covid group had more than 70,000 participants, similar to the Covid group in terms of age, gender, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and other diseases, body mass index, ethnicity and economic disadvantage . In all three groups, the average age was 66 years and the number of women and men was almost the same.
“The control cohort” before the pandemic, the scientists point out, “was included to exclude the impact of the reduction or suspension of routine health services” during the Covid crisis “which led to worsening health and increased mortality even among uninfected individuals have”. Compared to the two uninfected groups, Covid patients were about 4 times more likely to develop severe cardiovascular disease in the acute phase and 40% more likely in the post-acute phase. Compared to the Uninfected, the risk of dying in Covid patients was up to 81 times higher in the acute phase and 5 times higher in the post-acute phase Patients with severe Covid were more likely to develop severe cardiovascular disease or die than non-severe cases.
In general, infected individuals were more likely than uninfected individuals to develop both short- and long-term diseases such as myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and deep vein thrombosis. The risks of some cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and atrial fibrillation, were temporarily increased but then returned to normal levels.
If this study was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, “future research, Wong notes, should assess subsequent outbreaks.” And are also studying, the experts conclude, the possible effectiveness of vaccines in reducing cardiovascular risks and post-infection exhibitions.