Rise In Heart Attacks:
India’s financial capital Mumbai witnessed a six-fold rise in deaths related to heart attacks in the first six months of 2021 when the city was under the grip of the second wave of Covid-19.
Reason:
- Post-Covid development of thrombosis: SARS-Cov-2 damages the heart and blood vessels in infected patients which leads to the development of clots, heart inflammation, arrhythmias, and heart failure
- Thrombosis occurs when blood clots block veins or arteries
- Covid-19 can also cause microvascular damages, which may have also contributed to heart ailments
- Additional distress was noticed in during the pandemic: Anxiety and stress levels further added to the heart ailments.
- Delay in diagnosis of heart-related ailment amid the second wave: During the second wave, many patients avoided hospitals due to fear of contracting Covid-19, which further delayed life-saving treatment.
- Reperfusion therapies like Thrombolytic therapy (that dissolves clots) and timely interventions like angioplasty (the procedure used to widen blocked or narrowed coronary arteries) were delayed
- Better recording of heart-attack cases: since the start of the pandemic, medical practitioners are more conscious of segregation and bifurcation of types of deaths as well as maintaining better data related to heart attacks.
- Major lifestyle changes: Life has become more sedentary with fewer options for socialisation and physical activities
Doctors have witnessed an increase in the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, smoking, alcohol use and an unhealthy lifestyle in the last two years. - Indians have a genetic predisposition, smaller coronary arteries, a diet pattern with excessive consumption of trans fats and a sedentary lifestyle that puts them in a high-risk category for heart attacks
