HEART attacks are six times more likely during the week after you’re infected with flu, a study warns.
The deadly complications are significantly more likely then, than during the year before or after an infection, Dutch researchers found.
GettyHeart attacks are six times more likely during the week after you’re infected with flu compared to the year before or after, a study warns[/caption]
They tracked lab tests, hospital and death records covering 40 per cent of the country’s population from 2008 to 2019.
The team said flu increased the risk because the virus can increase the risk of blood clots, which can block supply to the heart, leading to a heart attack.
Dr Annemarijn de Boer, of UMC Utrecht, said: “With the potential public health implications of an association between influenza and heart attacks, showing robustness of results in a different study population is important.
“Our results endorse strategies to prevent influenza infection, including vaccination.
“They also advocate for a raised awareness among physicians and hospitalised flu-patients for symptoms of heart attacks.
“While it isn’t clear from our results if those with less severe flu are also at risk, it is prudent for them to be aware of the link.”
The number of people in hospital for flu reached their highest level in a decade at the end of last year, topping at more than 14.8 per 100,000.
However experts said the surge could have been even higher had millions of Brits not taken up the offer of a flu jab, encouraged by The Sun’s “Do the Double” campaign.
Around 100,000 Brits are hospitalised by a heart attack every year, amounting to one every five minutes.
They are caused by one of the arteries sending blood to the organ becoming blocked, often by fatty cholesterol deposits building up over time.
The latest study, presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, looked at how flu affected heart attack rates.
Some 26,211 cases of flu were confirmed in labs during the study period, with 401 people having at least one heart attack within a year of an infection.
Of the heart attacks, 25 were in the first seven days after flu diagnosis, 217 within the year before diagnosis and 177 in the year after flu diagnosis.
Researchers calculated that patients were 6.16 times more likely to have a heart attack in the seven days following a flu diagnosis than in the year before or after.