April 16, 2026

Influenza: Vaccination

Influenza Vaccination Attenuates Acute Myocardial Infarction and Stroke Risk Following Influenza Infection: A Register-based, Self-controlled Case Series Study, Denmark, 2014 to 2025
Catching influenza increases the short-term risk of heart attack and stroke. Influenza vaccination has been shown to reduce this risk by preventing infection, but it is unclear whether it also offers protection among people who become infected despite vaccination. In adults 40 years or older in Denmark, hospital admissions for heart attack and stroke were more frequent in the first week after testing positive for influenza than during any other period in the year before and after their test, almost threefold for stroke and fivefold for heart attack. This increased risk was about half as high among people who tested positive for influenza but had received the influenza vaccine that season. Influenza vaccination may offer cardiovascular protection even in instances when it does not prevent infection. If confirmed by additional studies in other settings, this would strengthen the case for prioritizing influenza vaccination among people at risk of heart disease or stroke.

COVID: The Late Phase/PASC/Long COVID

Interdisciplinary Pediatric Long-COVID Care: A Descriptive Study of Interventions and Health-Related Quality of Life
Clinical data were extracted from the electronic health records for patients aged 4–25 with Long-COVID seen within a pediatric Long COVID clinic. A subset of patients completed validated PROs of wellbeing, fatigue, sleep-related impairment and disturbance, depression, and anxiety. A cohort of 214 patients (mean age 14.7, 61% female, 83% White) were seen between March 2021 and June 2023, with 39.7% providing Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and 30.3% providing Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures. Common documented conditions included fatigue (85%), headache (75.2%), dizziness (64.5%), anxiety (62.1%), and nausea (59.3%). Common interventions included diet changes (81.8%), pacing (65.9%), sleep hygiene (61.2%), and other self-care techniques (46.7%). The Long-COVID cohort reported elevated PROMIS sleep disturbance (61.79), sleep-related impairment (63.9), anxiety (58.1), and depression (58.1) as well as PedsQL total fatigue (40.19). These scores were more severe than national norms. Pediatric patients with Long-COVID report high symptom burden.