It is vital that people with heart disease get vaccinated against common infectious diseases like COVID-19, influenza and RSV, a new clinical guideline says.
Vaccination can protect the heart health of people who've been diagnosed with heart disease, says the new guidance from the American College of Cardiology.
"Vaccination against communicable respiratory diseases and other serious diseases is critical for people with heart disease, but barriers exist to ensuring people are educated on which vaccines to get, how often to get them and why they are important," said Dr. Paul Heidenreich, chair of the ACC writing committee for the new guidelines.
"With this document, we want to encourage clinicians to have these conversations and help their patients manage vaccination as part of a standard prevention and treatment plan," he added in a news release.
The ACC guidelines come in the midst of a radical restructuring of the U.S. system of vaccination by the Trump administration.
