People with underlying health conditions, such as heart disease, are more vulnerable to COVID-19.
By the beginning of 2020, when we heard of a novel coronavirus with potentially severe consequences, the race was on to learn everything we could and should about it. Before long, and with so much still to be discovered, an unfortunate trend emerged: COVID-19 posed a particular risk to patients with underlying issues such as heart disease, which is already the leading cause of death on the planet.
Also emerging was a worrying trend that heart patients, who would usually seek routine care or need to access emergency services for non-COVID-related issues, were avoiding hospitals and doctors. Across the board, countries noted this dramatic drop, attributing it to fear of contracting the virus.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), at the root of coronavirus disease or COVID-19, has been claiming lives in ways as diverse as the patient complications observed. It is highly transmissible and strikes with varying forms of severity.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients are more susceptible to severe COVID-19. Diseases affecting some form of heart condition or heart function include hypertension and diabetes, acute coronary syndrome, injury to muscles tissues of the heart, (myocardial injury), heart failure, and less heard of but prevalent diseases such as rheumatic heart disease and Chagas disease.
Some practical recommendations, also summed up in the article “Understanding the COVID-19 heart connection in low-resource settings” aims to support care-giving and treatment, with guidelines across the board. Some key takeaways are:
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