India Pharma Outlook Team | Friday, 25 July 2025
Union Health Minister J P Nadda informed the Lok Sabha on Friday that an ICMR study had shown that the Covid vaccine did not raise the risk of sudden, unexplained deaths among young adults in India.
The probability of unexplained sudden deaths was raised by past COVID hospitalization, a family history of sudden death, and specific lifestyle choices. In response to a query, Nadda stated that the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had investigated two methods to look into the causes of sudden death. A retrospective case-control study was used in the first technique to identify risk factors for sudden death. A virtual autopsy was used in the second approach to prospectively examine sudden fatalities in young adults.
National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) conducted a study titled "Factors associated with The ICMR unexplained sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India - A multicentric matched case-control study" at 47 tertiary care hospitals located across 19 states and Union territories during May-August 2023.
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According to Nadda, the cases involved seemingly healthy people with no known co-morbidities who passed away unexpectedly from unexplained causes between October 1, 2021, and March 31, 2023, either within 24 hours of being admitted to the hospital or 24 hours prior to their death. Each case had four controls that were matched for neighborhood, gender, and age.
