Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke Ups After COVID-19

The risk of a first heart attack went up three- to eight-fold, and the risk of a first stroke rose three- to six-fold after a week of diagnosing with COVID-19.

COVID-19 infection increases patients' risks for heart attack and stroke, as per the study from Sweden that compared 86,742 individuals with the novel coronavirus and 348,481 people without the virus.

The risks then dropped but remained high for at least four weeks, according to the report in The Lancet.

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COVID-19 patients who had had heart attacks or strokes in the past were not included, but for them, the risk of another heart attack or stroke is probably even higher, said coauthor Dr. Anne-Marie Fors Connolly of Umea University.

Flu vaccination could decrease the risk for severe COVID-19 related life-threatening sepsis infections and strokes, according to a report in PLoS One. They studied 75,000 COVID-19 patients, half of whom had received the most recently available flu shot.

Fewer patients who had flu shots had to be admitted to intensive care units or visited emergency departments, and fewer had dangerous blood clots in their legs, compared to patients who did not get flu shots.

Stronger and larger studies would help "to validate these findings and determine if an increased emphasis on influenza vaccination will improve adverse outcomes in SARS-CoV-2-positive patients," the authors wrote.

Breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated people seem to strengthen their immune defenses, suggests a new study posted on medRxiv.

Vaccinated residents who still got the virus had significantly higher levels of antibodies afterward than vaccinated residents who did not get infected, and they also had more antibodies that were capable of neutralizing variants of the virus in a German nursing home.

Coauthor Jorg Timm of Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf said the findings suggest there might come a time - after most people have developed some level of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus - when natural infection will have some benefit, but only when it does not lead to severe symptoms or disease.

Source-Medindia