Study sounds the alarm:

Influenza dramatically increases the risk of heart attack

Influenza pathogens attack the entire organism.

(Bild: ©Axel Kock - stock.adobe.com)

During an influenza infection (PCR test), people without otherwise serious cardiovascular disease have a 16.6 times higher risk of heart attack. This is the alarming result of a new study.

The results of the Dutch study were recently published in the "New England Journal - Evidence".

It has long been known that influenza can trigger acute cardiovascular diseases.

Up to 17 times more frequent heart attacks with influenza
However, for the first time, Annemarijn de Boer (University Medical Center Utrecht) and her co-authors have been able to prove the probable link between influenza and the probability of a heart attack very precisely in people in whom the infection was clearly confirmed by PCR tests in 16 medical laboratories in the Netherlands.

The risk assessment was carried out for the period of one year before and one year after the influenza illness (control period) compared to up to seven days after the positive laboratory test (risk period).

(Bild: Andrii Starunskyi – stock.adobe.com)

Confirmed by PCR tests
"Between 2008 and 2019, we identified 158,777 PCR tests for influenza in the participating study population, of which 26,221 were positive and 23,405 corresponded to individual influenza cases. (...) The relative incidence of acute myocardial infarction during the risk period (acute influenza infection; note) compared to the control period was 6.16-fold. The relative incidence of acute myocardial infarction in people with no previous hospitalization for coronary heart disease was 16.60-fold," the experts wrote in the scientific journal (DOI: 10.1056/EVIDoa2300361).

In contrast, people with a previous hospital stay due to coronary artery disease "only" had a 1.43 times higher risk of heart attack. It is possible that the use of anticoagulant medication often prescribed by the doctor for such patients protects them. Infections with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or other viral respiratory diseases also showed a higher risk of infarction.

Vaccination called for as protection
British epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre wrote in a commentary that the results were consistent with the observation that ten percent of heart attack patients are also diagnosed with influenza, at least during the flu season. Influenza vaccination should also be seen as a way of reducing the risk of heart attack associated with such an illness. The study was funded by the Dutch Research Fund.