Covid may be bad for young people's hearts

Covid-19 is emerging as a key factor responsible for an increase in heart attacks among the young in Mumbai.

Doctors say patients who have had Covid-19 may be at increased risk of heart attack, a heart condition or cardiac arrest.

According to the BMC's Health Department, 20,327 deaths from heart ailments and attacks were reported in 2017. The number rose incrementally to 21,088 in 2018 and 22,109 in 2019, but in 2020 (when the first wave of the epidemic struck), the number rose sharply to 25,378, a rise of nearly 25% over the 2017 figure.

The civic data include deaths from heart conditions such as rheumatic fever, pulmonary heart disease and hypertension. Medical officers attribute this rise to several factors-post-Covid development of thrombosis, delay in detection and treatment of heart-related disease amid the pandemic surge, better recording of heart-attack cases and major life changes.

Dr Radhika Banka, consultant pulmonologist at the PD Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, says no study has yet been able to establish a clear causal relationship between Covid-19 vaccination and an increased risk of cardiovascular events. There were early reports of the Astrazeneca (AZ) vaccine causing blood clots in women. To date, however, only 10 people develop this condition for every million doses of AZ vaccine. And no such events were reported with other mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer or Moderna.

"Large observational studies published earlier this year have shown increased incidence of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and irregular heart rhythm after Covid-19 infection, irrespective of the severity of the infection, presence of underlying cardiac conditions, gender or age," she said.