According to a study published in the journal Heart Rhythm, researchers in the US, including an Indian-origin researcher, found that residents of Ventura County in California had a 38% increase in sudden cardiac arrest during the first two years of the pandemic.

They observed that the most commonly affected population was Hispanic residents, who faced a 77% increase in the condition, which causes a sudden loss of heart function that is usually fatal. The researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute in Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre revealed that the overall survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest declined from 15.3% to 10% during the pandemic.

This is the first study to examine the variations in sudden cardiac arrest rates by ethnicity and to use data from two full years of the pandemic, even though studies in other communities have produced similar results

.According to Kyndaron Reinier, research associate professor in the department of cardiology at Smidt Heart Institute, the rising cases of sudden cardiac arrest can be a direct result of the COVID-19 infection, but they also suspect that indirect effects of the pandemic played a crucial role in the spike in incidence and the decline in survival.

 The indirect effects also included patients delaying preventive care for their heart conditions during the pandemic as well as waiting to call 911 for chest pain or other cardiac-related symptoms.

 (Source: https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/risk-of-sudden-cardiac-arrest-spiked-in-this-us-county-during-covid-123040100259_1.html )