Experts are warning people who have had Covid-19 in the past year of a potentially life threatening complication. While long-term effects have been recognised for some time more evidence is beginning to emerge about other problems which can arise.
Now researchers have found the virus can leave people with a potentially deadly complication. And while rare, they are advising people that they could be at increased risk of developing a blood clot for at least a year after they had the disease.
The results have been published in Circulation and have come from a study of 48m health records. They discovered that in the seven day after being diagnosed with Covid sufferers were 21 times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, both conditions which are chiefly caused by blood clots blocking arteries. this then dropped to 3.9 times more likely after four weeks.
According to Birmingham Live people who had mild or moderate forms of the virus were at risk. It said researchers looked at a number of conditions caused by blood clots in the veins.
Conditions included deep vein thrombosis and pulonary embolism. This is where a blood clot is in the lungs and which can be fatal.
The risk of blood clots in the veins was 33 times greater in the first week after a COVID-19 diagnosis. This dropped to eight times higher risk after four weeks. The higher risk of blood clots after Covid remained for the study duration, although by 26 to 49 weeks it had dropped to 1.3 times more likely for clots in the arteries and 1.8 times more likely for clots in the veins.
Professor Jonathan Sterne, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol, who co-led the study, said: “We are reassured that the risk drops quite quickly – particularly for heart attacks and strokes. But the finding that it remains elevated for some time highlights the longer-term effects of Covid-19 that we are only beginning to understand."
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