As coronavirus cases across the world rose to 640,589 as on Saturday evening, reports have now surfaced saying that COVID-19 symptoms are similar to heart attacks in patients.
According to a report by New York Times, a 64-year-old patient who was admitted to a hospital in Brooklyn with symptoms looking like those seen in patients having a serious heart attack. An electrocardiogram revealed an ominous heart rhythm. Doctors rushed to open the patient’s blocked arteries — but found that no arteries were blocked. The patient was not having a heart attack. The culprit was the coronavirus.
The 64-year-old Brooklyn patient recovered after 12 days in the hospital and is now at home. But there have been reports of similar patients in the United States.
Chief science and quality officer at the American College of Cardiology, John Rumsfeld told New York Times, “We were thinking lungs, lungs, lungs — with us in a supportive role. Then all of a sudden we began to hear about potential direct impact on the heart.”
Experts have known that viral illnesses such as COVID-19 can cause respiratory infections that may lead to lung damage and even death in severe cases. Less is known about the effects on the cardiovascular system.
The number of coronavirus cases across the world rose to 640,589 as on Saturday evening, with the US leading with 115,547 cases, while the global death toll rose to 30,249 according to data from the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Centre.
Italy, with 10,023 fatalities, comprised over one third of the death toll, and was followed by Spain with 5,812 and China's Hubei with 3,177. Iran with 2,517 deaths, and France with 2,314 were joined in the four-figure category by the UK, where the toll is now 1,019. As regards the total number of cases, the US was followed by Italy (92,472), China (81,999), Spain (72,248), Germany (56,202), Iran (35,408), France (33,450) and the UK (17,301).
