Heart ailments cause one in seven deaths in Kerala

Kozhikode: Take heart, for its hard times for the weak hearts. As much as 14 per cent of all deaths in Kerala are caused by coronary heart disease. And worse, the prevalence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity is only strengthening, resulting in very high mortality due to heart diseases.

The data on heart diseases presented at the seventh annual conference of Indian College of Cardiology here on Sunday set off a discussion at the meet with experts calling for concerted efforts for prevention, management and control of the silent epidemic and for ensuring treatment for the poor with financial support from the state government.

Addressing the delegates, ICC national president Dr. P.K. Asokan demanded that the government introduce comprehensive health insurance schemes covering expenses for treatment for heart diseases including angioplasty or open heart surgery. “No person should die of heart ailment due to lack of money for treatment,” Dr Asokan said. “Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana have already made tremendous progress in providing health insurance covering heart ailments.”

He also drew attention to the fact that treating cardiac emergencies is a run against time as they are life threatening. As many as 12 scientific sessions covering topics including management of heart failure, combination therapy in hypertension, ambulatory BP monitoring, abnormal heart beat, anticoagulants and acute coronary syndrome were held at the two-day meet.