Flu patients 6 times more likely to have heart attack in week after diagnosis
If the buzz surrounding this flu season hasn’t been enough to convince people to head to their local pharmacies for a preventive shot, maybe this is will do it: A study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine reported influenza patients are six times more likely to have a heart attack during the week following diagnosis.
Lead researcher Jeff Kwong, MD, told National Public Radio the toll the flu takes on a patient’s body is enough to send it into overdrive.
“There’s inflammation going on, and your body is under a lot of stress,” he said. “[This] can lead to an increased risk of forming blood clots in the vessels that serve your heart.”
Not everyone who falls ill with the flu needs to be worried, though. Kwong said it’s all about age and baseline risk—individuals who did experience myocardial infarction as a result of influenza were typically 65 or older, and many had established risk factors for heart disease. A younger, healthy person shouldn’t have to worry.
Less than a third of Kwong’s study population had received the flu shot, he said, but he still recommends the vaccine.
“If we can reduce the risk of influenza infection, then we should reduce the risk of heart attacks,” he told NPR. “Getting an influenza vaccine is a good idea.”
Read the full NPR report below:
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.