There is considerable debate over the degree to which persistent viral infections contribute to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. If persistent viral infection causes generalized pathology over time, such as via increased chronic inflammation in later life, one would expect it to increase the incidence and severity of most age-related conditions. With that in mind, researchers here analyze a sizable body of study data to quantify the correlations between viral infection and cardiovascular disease. As one might expect, the results suggest that better control of viral infection could improve late life health.
It is well recognized that human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B virus and other viruses can cause cancer; however, the link between viral infections and other non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, is less well understood. Thus researchers set out to systematically review all published studies that investigated the association between any viral infection and the risk of stroke and heart attack, initially screening more than 52,000 publications and identifying 155 as appropriately designed and of high quality allowing for meta-analysis of the combined data.
In studies comparing long-term risk (average of more than 5 years) of cardiovascular events in people with certain chronic viral infections versus similar people without the infection, the researchers found: (a) a 60% higher risk of heart attack and 45% higher risk of stroke in people with HIV infection; (b) a 27% higher risk of heart attack and 23% higher risk of stroke in people with hepatitis C infection, and (c) a 12% higher risk of heart attack and 18% higher risk of stroke in people had shingles.
The findings also suggest that increased vaccination rates for influenza, COVID, and shingles have the potential to reduce the overall rate of heart attacks and strokes. As an example, the researchers cite a 2022 review of available science that found a 34% lower risk of major cardiovascular events among participants receiving a flu shot in randomized clinical trials vs. participants in the same trials who were randomly selected to receive a placebo instead.
