According to findings from Canadian and Scottish studies, it is now clear that pneumococci (bacteria that cause pneumonia) and influenza pathogens (flu viruses) massively increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke. According to this study, the acute risk of a heart attack is 7.5 times higher one week after the flu if the patients are over 65 years old. But even patients over 35 years of age still have a sixfold higher risk of suffering a heart attack. These warnings have now been confirmed by the University Hospital Jena (UKJ) around private lecturer Dr. Christina Forstner. According to these warnings, pneumococcal and flu vaccinations protect not only against the pathogens themselves but also against both diseases, in which blood clots or fat and calcium deposits can block vessels in the coronary or brain area. The infectiologist and expert at the UKJ speak of an indirect effect of the vaccination, which is particularly useful for chronically ill patients with cardiovascular diseases. This protective effect of the vaccination also applies to pneumonia, which is caused by pneumococci in one-third of cases. 100,000 people are admitted to hospital and treated annually for this bacterial infection. If they had been vaccinated, the bacterial pathogen causing pneumonia would not have broken out in the first place and secondary diseases such as strokes and heart attacks could have been avoided, because acute respiratory tract inflammation with a poorer oxygen supply and activated blood coagulation can lead to vascular occlusion in places where there may already be constrictions in the blood vessels. Chronically ill patients should, therefore, have vaccination protection according to the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO).
