New Zealand-based Consultant Physician in acute stroke and acute internal medicine, Dr Vinod Singh, says males under 40 years of age may be vulnerable to vaccine-related cardiac complications.

Dr Singh highlighted this during his presentation on the first day of the 28th Fiji College of General Practitioners Annual Conference at the Warwick Fiji Resort and Spa on Saturday.

“The important thing that I’ve emphasised is that if you have any of the symptoms within one to 28 days after the vaccine or anytime during the active infection then you should consider myocarditis, pericarditis and cardiac arrhythmias,” he said.

He said a previous medical background of heart failure could worsen after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as well as after infection.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website defined Myocarditis as the inflammation of the heart muscle or myocardium while Pericarditis was the inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.

“Both myocarditis and pericarditis have the following symptoms, chest pain, shortness of breath, feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart,” the website read.

The CDC website also defined Myopericarditis as a condition where both myocarditis and pericarditis were present.

Doctor Singh highlighted in his presentation that the risk of contracting Myocarditis and Myopericarditis after one to 28 days of vaccination increased after taking the first doses of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer Biontech vaccines respectively and the first and second doses of the Moderna vaccine.

“Unfortunately, the Moderna vaccine is quite significantly implicated in myocarditis, especially significantly after the second dose. It’s rare at the age over 40 and it’s more common in males than females,” Doctor Singh said.

“The cardiac complications of COVID-19 can be full spectrum. All the complications are far more common after infection than after vaccines. Some vaccines implicated more than the others, especially Moderna.”

Early diagnosis of the respective infection will provide a better outcome for the patient.

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