5 Vaccines You Should Get If You Have Heart Disease, Doctors Urge

Vaccines are top of mind for many of us right now, whether it’s because flu and COVID season are upon us or because it’s a hot-button political subject. But new research from the American College of Cardiology has brought to light a topic that doesn’t get as much attention—vaccines and heart disease.

“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 Paul Heidenreich, MD, FACC, chair of the ACC’s Concise Clinical Guidance (CCG) writing committee, in a press release.

He’s referring to the fact that people with heart disease are at a higher risk for infection, hospitalization, and even death when exposed to respiratory viruses. However, research shows that only 30 percent of primary care doctors discuss vaccination status with their patients—which is precisely why the ACC team put together these vaccine recommendations for those with heart disease.

RELATED: This Is the No. 1 Heart Attack Symptom People Ignore, Doctors Say.

Why heart disease makes respiratory viruses riskier:

Heart disease is responsible for 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The most common form of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which is caused by plaque buildup in the artery walls that decreases blood flow to the heart and can lead to a heart attack. Other types of heart disease are heart valve disease, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, pericardium, and arrhythmia.

When your body gets an infection, such as from a respiratory virus, your immune system kicks in, which generally triggers an inflammatory reaction, neurologist Kamakshi Lakshminarayan, MD, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota’s medical school, told the American Heart Association (AHA).

She was speaking about a study she led that was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which explored how acute infections affect cardiovascular disease (CVD) triggers.

“The infection appears to be the trigger for changing the finely tuned balance in the blood and making us more prone to thrombosis, or clot formation,” she explained. “It’s a trigger for the blood vessels to get blocked up and puts us at higher risk of serious events like heart attack and stroke.”

For someone with heart disease, it’s safe to assume that risk is even greater.

RELATED: Taking 1 Common Medicine Could Prevent 100,000 Heart Attacks A Year, Research Finds.

5 vaccines you should get if you have heart disease:

Because of the increased cardiovascular risk that comes with such infections, the ACC recommends that people with heart disease get the following five vaccinations.

1. Influenza

“An annual flu vaccine is recommended for all adults to reduce cardiovascular morbidity, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause death,” states the press release. If you’re over 50, the ACC advises against getting the nasal version of the flu vaccine.

To put this recommendation in perspective, a 2018 study found that the risk of having a heart attack was six times greater within a week of a confirmed flu infection.

Moreover, a 2020 study concluded that nearly 12 percent of adults who got the flu had an acute cardiovascular event. Of those, acute heart failure made up 6.2 percent of events, and acute ischemic heart disease 5.7 percent.

2. Pneumococcal

The pneumococcal vaccine is a one-time shot that protects against the bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream infections. The ACC recommends it for adults 19 or older with heart disease.

According to the AHA, the risk of heart attack or stroke is significantly increased during the year after a pneumonia infection, especially in elderly people. But what’s more alarming is that “the risk of a cardiac event following pneumonia remains about 2× greater than in noninfected individuals for up to 10 years,” they state.

3. COVID-19

“For the 2024–25 season, all adults with heart disease were recommended to receive the seasonal COVID-19 vaccine. Future vaccination frequency may change, but it is likely vaccination will remain beneficial for those with heart disease,” states the press release.

“Benefits include reduced risk of infection, severe infection, death, heart attack, COVID-19 induced pericarditis/myocarditis, COVID-19 induced stroke and atrial fibrillation, and long COVID symptoms,” it continues.

To this point, a Feb. 2025 study found that COVID infections were linked to the “rapid” growth of plaque in the coronary arteries.

“Inflammation following COVID-19 can lead to ongoing plaque growth, particularly in high-risk, noncalcified plaques,” study author Junbo Ge, MD, professor and director of the Cardiology Department at Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai, China, said in a press release. “Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are at increased risk for myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, and stroke for up to a year.”

4. RSV

The ACC recommends a single dose of the RSV vaccine for all adults 75 and older, as well as adults aged 50 to 74 with heart disease.

The AHA also advocates for the vaccine because, as they explain, “More severe cases of RSV can cause bronchiolitis and pneumonia. It can also worsen chronic health issues such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart failure.”

5. Shingles

People with heart disease are at a higher risk of developing shingles. Additionally, becoming infected with shingles increases one’s risk for experiencing a future cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, by 30 percent, according to an AHA study.

However, “People who are given a vaccine for shingles have a 23 percent lower risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease, according to a study of more than a million people published in the European Heart Journal,” states the European Society of Cardiology.

Therefore, the ACC recommends that adults 50 or older receive two doses of the shingles vaccine.