SAlready at the beginning of the corona pandemic, it became apparent that the new corona virus can damage the heart and blood vessels. Doctors feared a gigantic wave of new cardiovascular diseases was imminent. Now, almost three years later, the health effects of the pandemic can be assessed much better. According to the current state of knowledge, the tsunami of heart patients did not occur. Nevertheless, the fears were justified: the results of a now large number of studies make it clear that people after corona infections often develop cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes, cardiac insufficiency, cardiac arrhythmias and vascular occlusions in the legs or the Lung. This threat exists not only during the acute infection, but sometimes even months afterwards.
The risk of cardiovascular disease also increases with other infectious diseases, but probably only in the short term. This is shown by the findings of scientists from Canada (doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1702090). They analyzed health insurance data for Ontario residents and found that seasonal flu increased the risk of a heart attack sixfold and the common cold threefold. However, this was only the case during the acute infection and only in people of advanced age. The new corona virus, on the other hand, can also strike the heart of many younger people, not only acutely, but also in the long term.