The World Health Organization released updated clinical management guidelines for long-COVID on Friday, recommending routine cardiovascular screening for patients presenting with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, following the publication of new research confirming a significantly elevated risk of heart disease in this population.

The guidance update comes directly in the wake of a major study highlighted by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) showing that long-COVID patients face materially higher rates of cardiac complications, including arrhythmia, heart failure, and ischemic disease, compared to matched controls who fully recovered from acute COVID-19 infection. The WHO convened an emergency technical advisory call Thursday to review the findings and fast-track the protocol revisions.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said the new evidence warranted immediate updates to the 2023 guidance framework. 'The cardiovascular signal in long-COVID populations has been building in the literature for two years, but this latest dataset provides the statistical power to move from observation to clinical recommendation,' she said in a statement released from WHO headquarters in Geneva. The revised guidelines now call for baseline echocardiography and electrocardiogram screening within 90 days of a long-COVID diagnosis.

Health systems in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia — each of which maintains dedicated long-COVID clinical networks — indicated they would begin reviewing their own national protocols in light of the WHO update. NHS England said its long-COVID assessment centres, which serve tens of thousands of patients annually, would incorporate the new cardiovascular screening pathway into standard intake procedures by September 2026.

The development is expected to increase demand for cardiology consultations within long-COVID pathways and may prompt expanded insurance coverage for cardiac diagnostics among post-COVID patients in several jurisdictions. Patient advocacy groups, including Long COVID Alliance in the United States, called the WHO action overdue but welcomed the formal recognition of cardiovascular risk as a core feature of the condition rather than a peripheral complication.