People who have tested positive for Covid could be at a higher risk of 20 different conditions, according to a new study.
The research, published in Nature Medicine, warned anyone who has caught Covid is at higher risk of a stroke, heart failure, irregular heart rhythms, blood clots and cardiac arrest.
Those who have been hospitalised as a result of the virus may be at an even higher risk, research showed.
People who had Covid faced a 72% higher risk of heart failure after 12 months, according to the study, while around 45 more people per 1,000 went on to develop any of the 20 conditions, compared to uninfected people.
Researchers, who looked at data for over 11million US veterans, including 154,000 who had Covid, found those who had tested positive a year before were at a much higher risk of the 20 conditions, compared to those who hadn't had the bug.
The study was conducted before vaccines were available, however, and most of those who took part in the survey had not had a single jab when they caught Covid, reports the Sun.
Evelina Grayver, director of women’s heart health at Northwell Health in New York, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Fox News: “There were 20 cardiac disorders that were diagnosed for those patients that are suffering from long haul Covid.
"The most common is the shortness of breath and fatigue.
"The new arrhythmias, or the abnormal heart rhythms that people experience, are significant as well and can become incredibly handicapping for a lot of patients."
The research does not show if vaccines lessen the potential of developing the 20 conditions after catching Covid.
What are the 20 conditions?
- Stroke
- TIA
- Atrial fibrillation
- Sinus tachycardia
- Sinus bradycardia
- Ventricular arrhythmias
- Atrial flutter
- Pericarditis
- Myocarditis
- Acute coronary disease
- Myocardial infarction
- Ischemic cardiomyopathy
- Angina
- Heart failure
- Non-ischemic cardiomyopathy
- Cardiac arrest
- Cardiogenic shock
- Pulmonary embolism
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Superficial vein thrombosis
The news comes after an expert warned the Covid pandemic could lead to a rise in tuberculosis (TB) infections around the world as some patients will have gone undiagnosed amid the crisis.
Dr Laura Cleghorn, of the University of Dundee, said there is a “pressing need” to develop new treatments for the illness which some wrongly think of as a “disease of yesteryear”.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person, LiverpoolEcho reports.
It mainly affects the lungs, but it can affect any part of the body, including the tummy (abdomen), glands, bones and nervous system.
More than 100,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Wednesday - dropping to 98,204 new cases today - with cases generally steadily rising since the end of February, following close to two months of declining case numbers.
The soaring numbers, which also include a sharp 20% weekly rise in patients admitted to hospital with the virus, are being fuelled by people socially interacting more, and the new Deltacron strain.
The new strain is a hybrid of delta and omicron, the two variants that were dominant most recently in the UK.
