Many post COVID victims have heart issues. This is why:

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A new study has discovered how the SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks and damages the heart, answering a long-standing question about mysterious heart conditions following COVID-19 infection. The results could have large implications on how to effectively treat severe infections and develop new therapies for preventing long-term damage.

Throughout the pandemic, people with severe COVID-19 infection have often displayed symptoms of heart distress. Those with underlying heart conditions are at a greater risk of severe illness if they catch it, and reports of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia) in previously healthy patients with acute COVID-19 have been common.

However, exactly why this happens has eluded scientists until now. Researchers have been unsure whether the heart symptoms are a result of severe inflammation as the body reacts to the infection, or whether the virus particles themselves invade and attack heart cells.