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Pneumonia, Sepsis Associated With Increased Risk Of Heart Disease, Report

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pneumonia and sepsis are two major reasons why people are admitted to hospitals. Thanks to antibiotics and rapid care many people will survive these episodes of lung and infection problems and can do quite well.

But now there is a new report in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology which suggests that people who are hospitalized for pneumonia or sepsis have a six time higher risk of heart disease incidence in the following year. This risk continues for the following five years after hospitalization.

When you compare it with other issues like being overweight, having high blood pressure, and physical fitness, severe infection actually has the highest magnitude of cardiovascular risk three years after the hospitalization.

What this is telling us is we need to aggressively look at the potential for cardiovascular illness after patient is discharged with these problems.

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