Doctors say heart-related deaths have become the biggest killer since the Covid-19 pandemic, with a sharp rise in heart attack cases reported in Karachi and other parts of the world.
Medical experts note that in the first year after vaccination, more cases of heart problems were recorded, fueling public doubts about possible side effects. However, they stress that research is still ongoing and it is too early to directly blame vaccines.
When Express News contacted major hospitals in Karachi, they found no official data, but Aga Khan University Hospital’s cardiologist Dr. Farhalla Baloch confirmed a clear jump in cases. She explained that before the pandemic, the hospital saw between 1,000 to 1,500 patients annually who needed urgent procedures like angioplasty or bypass. Between 2021 and 2024, that number rose to 2,500 to 3,000 each year.
She said advanced facilities have helped save more lives, but the worrying trend is that younger patients, often in their 40s, are dying more frequently from severe attacks. Even teenagers as young as 18 have suffered major heart attacks.
Baloch added that while some believe Covid itself raised the risk, decisions in healthcare cannot be made on assumptions alone. International studies show that severe Covid infections damaged not only the lungs but also weakened the heart, sometimes causing clotting or irregular rhythms. Yet, she cautioned, it is too soon to say the virus directly caused the global spike in attacks.
Lifestyle changes after the pandemic have also played a big role. Work-from-home stress, poor diets, lack of exercise, and weight gain are all contributing factors. Many patients arriving at clinics report obesity and hypertension that worsened during lockdowns.
On vaccines, she acknowledged some patients linked symptoms like high blood pressure or chest discomfort to their jabs. But she emphasized that there is no clinical proof that vaccines directly caused heart attacks or deaths. In fact, she said vaccines saved countless lives, and unsafe versions were never distributed in Pakistan.
At Karachi’s National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), nearly 10,000 heart attack patients were treated in 2024 alone, with over 1,600 undergoing bypass surgery and 1,400 receiving other major cardiac procedures.
Cardiologist Dr. Javed Ahmed Jilbani, speaking from Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said restrictions during the pandemic temporarily reduced heart cases, but numbers shot up once lockdowns lifted. Research from the UK Biobank also found that people with blood groups A, B, or AB faced higher risks of heart attack and stroke compared to those with blood group O.
Data shows that heart attack cases did rise after the first and second vaccine doses, especially among older people, but declined after the third dose. Young patients were more likely to develop myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, though most recovered.
Global evidence confirms that in the first year after vaccination, heart attack cases rose, but later started to decline, particularly among those who received booster shots. Experts underline that while deaths did spike in the early rollout phase, it remains unclear whether Covid or vaccines were responsible.
