The Covid pandemic has entered an endemic phase and this is allowing us to breathe a sigh of relief by resuming a more “normal” lifestyle, without major restrictions and particular conditioning. However, the indirect consequences of the more than two years of illness are not indifferent, both from an economic point of view and – above all – from that of health.
Long Covid, of course, but not only. According to a study published in the journal European Heart Journal, in the coming months and years we should expect a worsening of heart disease.
Leading the study was an international team of doctors and data scientists coordinated by the University of Leeds, who carried out the first global assessment of how the world of healthcare has dealt with the pandemic.
In particular, Researchers looked at data from 189 different research papers analyzing the impact Covid-19 had on cardiovascular services in 48 countries across six continents and over a two-year period, starting in December 2019.
It emerged that in the past two and a half years, due to the extreme pressure to which health systems around the world have been subjected, those who have had to deal with an acute cardiac event, such as a heart attack or heart failure, have not always he was able to be hospitalized and receive the most appropriate treatment.
A condition that has led to a “substantial decline” in hospital admissions of people with cardiovascular disease and the consequent increase in the number of people who have died at home or in the community from heart problems.
Specifically, based on the findings of the study, the subjects who received medical assistance were, on average, more than an hour late in reaching the hospital or in coming into contact with health professionals and it is known how much the timeliness of the intervention is fundamental, in these cases, for the survival of patients who suffer a serious heart attack.
“Heart disease is the number one killer in most countries, and analysis shows that during the pandemic, people around the world did not receive the heart care they should have received,” said clinical researcher Ramesh Nadarajah. of the British Heart Foundation from the University of Leeds and lead author of the article. “This will have consequences. The longer people wait for treatment for a heart attack, the more damage to the heart muscle will be, causing complications that can be fatal or cause chronic disease. Healthcare facilities need to strengthen their intervention systems in order to help support and treat people whose heart conditions will inevitably be worse as a result of the pandemic. This document represents proof ».
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Source: Vanity Fair
