A study found links between COVID-19 and a higher risk for developing a variety of circulatory conditions months after infection.
Long COVID-19 is scary and unpredictable. While researchers are trying their best to understand the disease and its behavior, there’s still much that remains mysterious. A new study found evidence that long COVID-19 is related to serious health conditions developed afterwards, among them: the presence of blood clots.
The study, published in the BMJ. It was a big study, looking over the results of over a million people in Sweden who’d contracted COVID-19 between February 2020 and May 2021. These results were then compared to people of their same gender and age group, who had not contracted COVID-19.
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The results showed that patients who’d had COVID-19 had higher risks of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and bleeding, the three conditions that researchers set out to find. Despite patients clearing their infections, these risks remained for months later.
This isn’t the first study to connect long COVID-19 with a variety of health conditions, including cardiovascular and clotting issues. While infections are related to clotting issues, in the case of COVID-19, this situation is made worse by the severity of the virus. Researchers speculate that COVID-19’s inflammatory response on the immune system could be responsible.
While the study’s results are pretty concerning, it’s important to know that a significant percentage of the data that was gathered occurred during a time where there was no access to vaccines in Sweden. Vaccines are proven to lower the risk of severe COVID-19 infection and would likely influence the amount of people experiencing these type of circulatory problems.
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Studies on the effect of long COVID-19 not only help us understand the disease, helping us be more careful about contracting it, but also providing orientation for health care professionals. Knowing that cardiovascular conditions are a risk for people who’ve contracted COVID-19 can help treat others in similar situations and provide faster treatment, saving more lives in the long run.
