Heart diseases cause 30pc deaths

The number of people with cardiac diseases is increasing in Bangladesh alarmingly as about 2.5 lakh people die of the complications every year in the country, 30 per cent of the total annual deaths.

World Heart Day is going to be observed in Bangladesh today as elsewhere in the world.

Just four years earlier, the number of people who died of heart diseases was 1.5 lakh a year, or 17 per cent of the deaths, according to government and World Health Organisation data.

Doctors say that the reason for rapid rise in the number of heart patients is that a high number of people are exposed to various risk factors associated with heart diseases.

A small number of treatment facilities for heart patients and lack of affordability of many patients to access the treatment are putting them in the lurch, according to experts and sufferers.

People of young age suffering from heart complications appeared as a cause for concern in Bangladesh as, experts say, children get into an unhealthy lifestyle at early stages.

Different studies have revealed that motility and morbidity due to cardiac diseases are on the rise in Bangladesh.

The major risk factors associated with cardiac diseases are physical inactivity, tobacco use, sodium intake, raised blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and air pollution and these factors are highly prevalent in Bangladesh, the studies show.

For several years, deaths from cardiac diseases are at the top among the deaths from non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh, according to the government and the WHO.

According to the non-communicable disease wing of the Health Services, 67 per cent of people dying every year in Bangladesh die of non-communicable diseases, and among this 67 per cent deaths heart disease fatality tops the list with 30 per cent.

The deaths from cardiovascular diseases have increased manifold over the last few years, as the 2018 WHO country profile showed.

In 2014, the WHO said, the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases was 1.5 lakh or 17 per cent of the total deaths from NCDs.

The top cause of the mortality, morbidity and hospital admission in the country is also cardiovascular diseases.

The National Health Bulletin 2017, published in 2018, described cardiovascular complications as the first major NCDs in Bangladesh.

According to the bulletin, the top cause of morbidity among the ppeople in 2017 was cardiovascular diseases – 13.2 per cent at district hospitals and 12.2 per cent at medical college hospitals.

The major cause of mortality among patients found in different medical college hospitals was also cardiovascular diseases – 54.24 per cent. The distant second top cause of mortality at medical college hospitals was respiratory disease – 4.93 per cent.

At the district-level hospitals, cardiovascular complications topped the list of major causes of mortality – 47.53 per cent and the second top cause was respiratory diseases – 20.13 per cent.

At the upazila-level hospitals, too, cardiovascular diseases came out as the most important cause of mortality – 32.42 per cent while the second dominant cause was respiratory complications – 24.71 per cent.

Cardiac diseases also ranked first in the list of top-10 causes of deaths in Bangladesh, according to the National Health Bulletin 2018, published this year.

A three-step study jointly conducted by the government and the WHO between 2017 and 2018 showed that over 29 per cent people undertook less than 150 minutes of physical activity in a week.

The WHO defines less than 150 minutes of moderate physical activity as insufficient, which puts a person at the risk of getting non-communicable diseases.

The joint survey found that more than 49 per cent of men and less than one per cent of women currently smoked, while over 91 per cent of people ate inadequate vegetable and fruits.

Five servings (a moderate cup for each serving) of vegetable or fruit are ideal for a person every day to keep non-communicable disease at bay.

Besides, over 20 per cent of people were overweight and over 5 per cent obese while over 25 per cent suffered from hypertension, the study found.

The study also revealed that over 13 per cent of urban people and 7 per cent of rural people had diabetes while over 32 per cent of urban people and over 27 per cent of rural people had high cholesterol. National Heart Foundation epidemiology professor Sohel Reza Chowdhury told New Age that Bangladesh was passing through a disastrous situation due to the increase in the number of cardiac patients while the opportunities for treatment and management of such patients were very low.

Over 22 per cent of cardiac patients in Bangladesh are young whereas less than 10 per cent young people in developed countries suffer from cardiovascular diseases, he said.

Country’s people are exposed to risk factors like tobacco use, sodium intake, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity while they take fast foods, fatty foods and sugary drinks from the very beginning of their life, he noted.

Sohel said that as the cardiac diseases required specialised treatment provided by trained manpower with high-end medical facilities like angiogram, ICU and CCU, the health facilities in rural Bangladesh and even at district level did not have such manpower and facilities and hence fail to provide proper and timely treatment to the cardiac patients.

As the upazila- and district-level hospitals cannot provide proper and prompt care to cardiac patients, they are mostly referred to facilities in Dhaka, he mentioned.

But due to unavailability of adequately equipped government health facilities even in the capital, many patients have to go for costly treatment at private hospitals, he said.

Sohel pointed out that only treatment was not the solution of heart problems rather the life style including the diet had to be healthy to keep them at bay.

The line director for non-communicable diseases at the Directorate General of Health Services, Nur Mohammad, told New Age that they were concerned about the rise in the number of cardiac patients and those having other non-communicable diseases.

He further said that the government took a multi-sectorial national action plan to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases and as part of that plan the three-step study was conducted to know the real situation.

‘The government has turned its focus from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases and many programmes have been taken and budgetary allocation made to this end,’ he said.

Nur Mohammad observed that the people have to be aware about their lifestyle as only the government efforts could not yield the solution if people did not become aware.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net