The coronavirus pandemic well resulted in the development of several other serious illnesses. This is due to the syndrome called Covid long which affects a significant proportion of people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 which still continues to rage around the world. Among the complications are mental and kidney disorders, memory loss, fatigue and problems related to the cardiovascular system among others. A scientific team has recently focused in particular on the risk of the onset of any cardiovascular disease in people who have been infected with the virus. And that’s a pretty high number! The work was published on February 7, 2022 in the scientific journal Nature.
Long Covid leads to a fairly high risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease
As part of their study, researchers from the University of Washington compared the health data of 5 million individuals not infected with SARS-CoV-2 with those of more than 150,000 people who tested positive for the period. between March 020 and January 2021.
The results revealed that people who have had Covid-19 are at a higher risk of having cardiovascular disease in the first 30 days following contamination. Moreover, this risk increases to 55% during the year following infection.
But this complication due to the long Covid does not only concern patients who have suffered from a severe form of the virus. This also concerns those who had a mild form. Indeed, this high risk was mainly observed first in non-hospitalized people, then in hospitalized people and finally, in patients admitted to intensive care.
Individuals who suffered from a mild form of SARS-CoV-2 had no history that might explain the development of cardiovascular disease.
What type of cardiovascular disorder is it?
Research participants developed various types of cardiovascular disorders including the following:
- cerebrovascular problems
- dysrythmies
- ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease
- pericarditis and myocarditis
- heart failure
- troubles thromboemboliques
How many people are affected?
Given that SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 380 million people at the time of writing the study, researchers estimate that the virus might cause cardiovascular problems in at least 15 million people.
Reference:
Nature (février 2022) : « Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 », Yan Xie, Evan Xu, Benjamin Bowe et Ziyad Al-Aly.