Experts have warned people who had Covid in the last year are at risk of potentially life-threatening complications in the form of heart attack s or stroke s.
More evidence is beginning to emerge about health problems that arise after the virus. Although rare, a new study suggests sufferers who had mild or moderate Covid could have an increased risk of blood clots for at least a year after having the virus.
People with Covid were 21 times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke in the seven days after diagnosis, Birmingham Live reports. Researchers note the risk drops "quite quickly" but remains elevated for "some time".
The results have been published in Circulation come from a study of 48m health records as researchers looked at a number of conditions caused by blood clots in the veins.
Conditions included deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism - this is where a blood clot is in the lungs and which can be fatal.
In the seven days 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.
The risk of blood clots in the veins was 33 times greater in the first week after a diagnosis of coronavirus. 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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