COVID Might Increase Risk of Heart Attack for Up To Three Years After Infection

A new study in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology found that COVID-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks for up to three years after an infection. 

“We found a long-term cardiovascular health risk associated with COVID, especially among people with more severe COVID-19 cases that required hospitalization,” said the study’s lead author James Hilser, M.P.H., Ph.D.-candidate at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. “This increased risk of heart attack and stroke continued three years after COVID-19 infection. Remarkably, in some cases, the increased risk was almost as high as having a known cardiovascular risk factor such as Type 2 diabetes or peripheral artery disease.”

The research studied those people who tested positive for COVID February 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020 – before vaccines were readily available to reduce the severity of the infections. According to the study, those people who tested positive for COVID during that time had twice the risk of a major cardiac event compared with the people who didn’t test positive.