The risk of pulmonary embolism and venous thrombosis is multiplied by a corona infection. According to a new study of all those who tested positive in Sweden, this applies six months after the diagnosis.

According to a study, people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have an increased risk of developing severe blood clots for up to six months after infection . According to the study published on Thursday in the journal BMJ , those infected still had a 33-fold increased risk of pulmonary embolism, in which a blood clot blocks arteries in the lungs, six months after infection.

The risk of deep vein thrombosis – a blood clot that normally forms in the legs – was also fivefold increased up to three months after being infected with the coronavirus. People with severe Covid disease or previous illnesses were particularly at risk. But people with mild illnesses that didn’t require hospitalization were also at higher risk of developing pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis.

It was already known that Covid-19 infection increases the risk of blood clots. What is new, however, is the knowledge of how long the risk lasts.

For the study, the researchers used the data of all people in Sweden who tested positive for the virus between February 2020 and May 2021. There were more than a million. These were compared to four million people who tested negative and matched the age and gender of those who tested positive as a control group.https://spiegel-online-neu-profil.newsletter2go.com/coronavirus-newsletter.html

The researchers found that in the first wave of infection in spring 2020, the risk of blood clots was higher than later as the pandemic progressed. They explained this with the increasing vaccination rate and better treatment methods. According to the study, their results underlined the importance of corona vaccination. In addition, special attention must be paid to thrombosis prophylaxis for high-risk patients. Whether this is still necessary months after recovery has yet to be researched.