THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Covid pandemic could have worsened the heart disease burden of the state as the impact is likely to be witnessed in the months to come, warn health experts. Both Covid and cardiovascular diseases are known to increase mortality and morbidity. While Covid had resulted in the death of over 63,000 people in the last two years, cardiovascular diseases had been causing more deaths over the years.
The health experts point to a situation where the Covid infection could trigger multiple heart ailments during the post-recovery period. While the impact of the viral infection in triggering other diseases is well documented, the study on the impact of post-Covid syndrome is still in the nascent stage. Yet, the warning signs are already there, according to clinicians.
“The cardiovascular disease risk has increased by 25% though we have limited data to substantiate it. The ‘Long Covid’ is going to be a problem for the next one to two years,” said Dr Harikrishnan S, principal investigator of the Centre of Excellence in Heart Failure and professor of Cardiology of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST).
According to him, 1-2% people who had recovered from Covid face severe problems, such as heart failures. He said the SCTIMST would soon start an outpatient clinic for post-Covid ailments. The health department recently released a data that showed that close to 9,000 people approached post-Covid clinics with complaints of heart problems. Over seven lakh people had visited such clinics in the state by January end.
At present, there have been no studies in the country to explain the extend of the situation. The studies by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Cardiological Society of India are still under way, said Dr Harikrishnan.
A study conducted in the USA found that Covid patients were 1.7 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disorders or dysregulated heart rhythm and 2.39 times more likely to form clots in blood vessels. The findings conducted on 1.5 lakh Covid patients from March 1, 2020 to January 15, 2021 were published in the journal ‘Nature Medicine’.
The second wave led by Delta and the third wave by Omicron have further widened the scope for the study. But the researchers found that the lack of credible data was a challenge to making a meaningful inference.
“Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have increased slightly. But it is too early to pinpoint a reason. The studies have been affected due to limitation in establishing a control group. Still, such comparative studies are possible by taking pre-Covid data,” said internal medicine specialist and public health activist Dr N M Arun.