A dire warning has come from India’s apex research body, The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). A new study has found that there is a rise in the number of heart attacks among young people, especially those who have recovered from a severe case of Covid 19.
The peer-reviewed study titled ‘Factors associated with unexplained sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India – a multicentric matched case-control study’ involved the participation of 47 tertiary care hospitals across the country.
It was made to investigate the anecdotal reports of deaths among people – including some famous ones – which gave rise to a narrative that the COVID-19 vaccines were somehow responsible for the death.
The study dismissed the notion that COVID-19 vaccines were responsible for the death.
“Covid vaccination was not found to be the contributing factor for sudden deaths; if at all, vaccination may have actually prevented deaths. There are likely other contributing factors that have been duly listed in the paper,” said Manoj Murhekar, director, of ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, and corresponding author of the study.
However, the study admitted that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) infection does increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
It listed such causes as past-Covid hospitalization, binge drinking, and intense unaccustomed activity as the reason for a spate of sudden deaths among young people in India.
“... the more the frequency of alcohol use, the higher was the odds for unexplained sudden death,” the study added.
There has been such an alarming number of young people collapsing at Garba night – or a night of frenzied dance – that in Gujarat, a state in India, organizers of Garba Nights have kept medical teams on standby at venues this year.
At least 10 people have died in Gujarat’s Garba Night due to a heart attack in just 24 hours. The youngest victim was just 17 years old.
“There is a possibility of sudden death if one suddenly starts doing excessive exercise, especially those above 30 persons who have been leading a sedentary life. It may rupture an atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries, resulting in heart attack,” said Dr KK Talwar, former head of cardiology department, AIIMS-Delhi.
The Indian Union Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, has also cautioned COVID-19 patients, especially those who have suffered from severe symptoms to avoid hard labour or strenuous exercises for at least one or two years after recovery because it could lead to a heart attack.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.
TheRealNehruism is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
