People who have declined, are unable or have refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19 retain a greater risk of death and cardiovascular disease for at least 18 months after being infected with the virus, research has suggested.
Covid-19 is associated with higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death in the short- and long-term, according to the study of nearly 160,000 people published in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology.
Compared to uninfected individuals, the likelihood of Covid-19 patients dying was up to 81 times higher in the first three weeks of infection and remained five times higher up to 18 months later, it concluded.
“Covid-19 patients were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular conditions compared to uninfected participants, which may have contributed to their higher risks of death,” said study author Professor Ian C K Wong of the University of Hong Kong.
“The findings indicate that patients with Covid-19 should be monitored for at least a year after recovering from the acute illness to diagnose cardiovascular complications of the infection, which form part of long Covid,” he added.
This study compared the occurrence of cardiovascular conditions and death in infected versus uninfected individuals recruited before December 2020, when no vaccines were available in the UK.
More than 7,500 patients with the virus were diagnosed from 16 March 2020 to 30 November 2020. Each patient was matched with up to 10 individ …