India reports more heart attacks in youngsters in post-Covid era

New Delhi: A new study suggested that there are more and more cases of unexpected heart attacks and strokes are being reported among young and middle-aged Indians. The victims include both vaccinated and unvaccinated against the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey published on Friday said.

The survey involved 32,000 citizens from 357 districts.

Around 51 per cent of the subjects said that they know one or more individuals from their close network who have experienced heart or brain stroke, blood clots, neurological complications, cancer acceleration, or other sudden medical conditions in the last two years.

As per the survey conducted by LocalCircles, 62 per cent of attendees said that those affected with these anomalies in their network were double vaccinated, 11 per cent said that those impacted were single-dose vaccinated, while 8 per cent said they were not vaccinated.

When 61 per cent said their contacts with severe medical conditions had Covid once or more, 28 per cent said their contacts who experienced severe medical conditions never had Covid.

Researchers believe that more than 200 million people worldwide are currently facing prolonged Covid-19 conditions. The morbidities include myocarditis, pericarditis, brain fog or memory issues, sleep apnea, fatigue, joint pain, and other health conditions.

There were also recent media reports of healthy, young and middle-aged individuals, both men and women have experienced a heart attack and died.

The survey said, "In several of these cases, the individual was engaged in some physical activity like dance, gym, walking etc., when they experienced the cardiac event. This has led to worries and anxiety in the minds of many, wanting to understand what is driving such sudden deaths."

"Stroke has been seen as a manifestation of Covid-19 in various studies, showing that 0.9 per cent to 23 per cent of Covid-19 patients developed stroke," according to Bengaluru-headquartered Narayana Health.

Though the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare came out with a "National Comprehensive Guidelines for Management of Post-COVID Sequelae" for doctors last year, not much seems to have been done to inform citizens, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who survived more than one bout of Covid or its variants, on possible complications and the need to avoid Covid reinfections.

The government guidelines at the onset stated that "up to 20 per cent-30 per cent of patients hospitalised with severe Covid have evidence of myocardial involvement manifested by elevated troponin levels, venous thromboembolism, heart failure and arrhythmias".

The survey found that more than half the respondents knew of at least one or more individuals who are suffering due to the after-effects of Covid.

"This is a high percentage which clearly indicates that prevalence of these severe conditions is very much a reality," the findings showed.