Boston 25 News: COVID-19 may increase heart attack and stroke risk for years

People infected with the COVID-19 virus in 2020 may have double the risk for future heart attacks, strokes or premature death from any cause up to three years later – even if they never showed signs of severe illness, according to new research. The risk may be considerably higher in people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic.

Watch a report on the findings from Boston 25 News:

The findings suggest that being hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020 was a “coronary artery disease risk equivalent,” conferring a higher risk for future heart attacks, strokes or death in people without a history of cardiovascular disease than the risk for people with a history who didn’t have COVID. The continued increased risk was especially pronounced in people with non-O blood types, representing what the study’s authors say is one of the first examples of an interaction between genes and a pathogen that increases heart attack and stroke risk in people.

The analysis, which did not include people infected after vaccines were widely available, was published Wednesday in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Learn more here.