The safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines have always been under great scrutiny. While most people have received their shots, some continue to claim that it can lead to complications and cause sudden death. The increasing number of heart attacks among young people even prompted many to question the safety of the vaccines.
However, a new study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that there is no link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart attacks.
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Study Details
The peer reviewed study, titled "Factors associated with sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India -- a multicentric matched case-control study", was carried out between October 2021 and March 2023 and involved the participation of 47 tertiary care hospitals across India.
The researchers found 29,171 sudden deaths among individuals aged 18-45 years and scrutinised 729 of the cases as well as 2,916 "control" subjects.
According to the study, 87% of participants had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine before the outcome. 2% had been hospitalised for COVID, with another 2% experiencing post-COVID conditions one month after diagnosis (none reported at three months). 10% percent had a family history of sudden death, 27% were smokers, and a similar percentage reported alcohol use. Among alcohol users, nearly 7% engaged in binge drinking 48 hours before death or interview. 18% of cases reported vigorous intensity physical activity in the past year.
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Manoj Murhekar, director, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, and corresponding author of the study, said, “Most sudden deaths were due to cardiac reasons, but may not have been the result of a cardiac arrest, which is why we called them sudden deaths. There were two groups, cases and control — data for cases was taken from hospitals and for control we went within the community looking for healthy individuals. Covid vaccination was not found to be the contributing factor for sudden deaths; if at all, vaccination may have actually prevented deaths. There are likely other contributing factors that have been duly listed in the paper."
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"We found no evidence of a positive association of COVID-19 vaccination with unexplained sudden death among young adults," the research group said in a study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research.
The study authors concluded, "At the same time, family history of sudden death, hospitalisation for COVID-19 and lifestyle behaviours such as recent binge drinking and vigorous-intensity physical activity were risk factors for unexplained sudden death."
The study comes a few days after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya cautioned individuals who experienced a severe episode of COVID from overexertion for one to two years to reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiac arrests.
“The ICMR has done a detailed study recently. That detailed study has recommended that those who had severe Covid should desist from extra labour; that they should stay away from continuous labour, laborious running, exercise, etc., for a specified short period, meaning a year or two, so that heart attacks can be prevented,” Mandaviya said.