Is COVID-19 vaccination cause of rising sudden deaths among youths in India? ICMR study says NO

The study, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research noted that family history of sudden deaths, post-COVID-19 hospitalisation, intense unaccustomed activity, binge drinking and not COVID-19 vaccines are the contributing factors to an increased risk of sudden deaths among young adults.

Given anecdotal reports of sudden unexplained deaths in apparently healthy adults in India, linked to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection or vaccination, Manickam Ponnaiah, ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and colleagues determined the factors associated with such deaths in people aged 18-45 years by conducting a multicentric matched case–control study.

The primary aim of vaccination is the prevention of COVID-19 outcomes. Adverse events, particularly thromboembolic (obstruction of blood vessel) events, have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination, but not much evidence exists suggesting protection against all-cause mortality across various age groups.

The study registered the participation of 47 tertiary care hospitals across the country. Cases included healthy individuals aged 18-45 years without any known co-morbidity, who suddenly died of unexplained causes from 2021 to 2023. The analysis included 729 cases and 2,916 others (the control group) were included in the analysis.

The researchers interviewed/perused records to collect data on COVID-19 infection/vaccination and post-COVID-19 conditions, smoking, family history of sudden death, alcohol frequency, binge drinking, recreational drug use, and vigorous-intensity physical activity two days before death/interviews.

Regression models were developed considering COVID-19 vaccination ≤42 days before outcome, any vaccine received anytime and vaccine doses to compute an adjusted matched odds ratio (aOR).

The researchers reported the following findings:

• Receipt of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine lowered the odds [aOR] for unexplained sudden death [0.58], whereas, past COVID-19 hospitalization [3.8], family history of sudden death [2.53], use of recreational drug/substance [2.92], binge drinking 48 h before death/interview [5.29], and performing vigorous-intensity physical activity 48 h before death/interview [3.7] were positively associated.
• Two doses lowered the odds of unexplained sudden death [0.51], whereas a single dose did not.

The study stated, "COVID-19 vaccination did not raise the risk of unexplained sudden death among young adults in India."

"Past COVID-19 hospitalization, certain lifestyle behaviours, and family history of sudden death increased the likelihood of unexplained sudden death."

According to the authors, the most sudden deaths were due to cardiac reasons, but not have been the result of cardiac arrest, which is why they are called sudden deaths. COVID-19 vaccination was not found to be the contributing factor for sudden deaths; if at all, vaccination may have prevented deaths.

Reference:

Ponnaiah, Manickam1a; Bhatnagar, Tarun1b; Abdulkader, Rizwan Suliankachi1a; Elumalai, Rajalakshmi1a; Surya, Janani1c; Jeyashree, Kathiresan1c; Kumar, Muthusamy Santhosh1b; Govindaraju, Ranjithkumar1c; Thangaraj, Jeromie Wesley vivian1c; Aggarwal, Hari Krishan12; Balan, Suresh4; Baruah, Tridip Dutta14; Basu, Ayan15; Bavaskar, Yogita18; Bhadoria, Ajeet Singh21; Bhalla, Ashish22; Bhardwaj, Pankaj23; Bhat, Rachana26; Chakravarty, Jaya32; Chandy, Gina Maryann5; Gupta, Bal Kishan24; Kakkar, Rakesh36; Karnam, Ali Hasan Faiz37; Kataria, Sushila13; Khambholja, Janakkumar42; Kumar, Dewesh39; Kumar, Nithin27,31; Lyngdoh, Monaliza40; Meena, M. Selva6; Mehta, Kedar41; Sheethal, M. P.28; Mukherjee, Subhasis16; Mundra, Anuj44; Murugan, Arun2; Narayanan, Seetharaman7; Nathan, Balamurugan38a; Ojah, Jutika45; Patil, Pushpa29; Pawar, Sunita19; Ruban, A. Charles Pon9; Vadivelu, R.10; Rana, Rishabh Kumar46; Boopathy, S. Nagendra3; Priya, S.11; Sahoo, Saroj Kumar47; Shah, Arti43; Shameem, Mohamma33; Shanmugam, Karthikeyan8; Shivnitwar, Sachin K.20; Singhai, Abhishek48; Srivastava, Saurabh34; Sulgante, Sudheera30; Talukdar, Arunansu17; Verma, Alka35; Vohra, Rajaat25; Wani, Rabbanie Tariq49; Bathula, Bhargavi1a; Kumari, Gayathri1c; Kumar, Divya Saravana1c; Narasimhan, Aishwariya1c; Krupa, N. C.1a; Senguttuvan, Thirumaran1a; Surendran, Parvathi1c; Tamilmani, Dharsikaa1a; Turuk, Alka50; Kumar, Gunjan50; Murkherjee, Aparna50; Aggarwal, Rakesh38b; Murhekar, Manoj Vasant1c; Sudden Adult Deaths Study Group. Factors associated with unexplained sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India – A multicentric matched case–control study. Indian Journal of Medical Research ():10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_2105_23, November 16, 2023. | DOI: 10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_2105_23