New Delhi, September 6
The silently advancing cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemic will kill more Indians annually in the next six years than any other disease will. Of the total number of patients suffering from coronary heart disease and strokes by 2015, half will be from India.
The trend has cardiologists worried. Dr Ashok Seth, head of cardiac sciences and chief cardiologist with the Escorts Heart Institute in the Capital, recently carried out a survey of 1000 morning walkers in Delhi which confirmed his worst fears.
Seventy per cent of the regulars at parks were there because they had a history of heart disease or had been asked by a doctor to walk. “Only 30 per cent were self-motivated and were walking for fitness. Moreover, 70 per cent of the walkers were over 50 years. This is a distressing sign, given the rise of heart risks in the young by 50 per cent in the last 15 years,” Seth told The Tribune. Another grim finding, he says, shows 300 per cent increase in CVD in India over the past 30 years.
The highest risk is from coronary heart disease which affects the rich and the poor almost equally, says Seth. “Cardiovascular disease, mainly coronary heart disease, will kill 10 million Indians every year by 2015 - at a time when mortality in the West is falling by 50 per cent. Westerners realise that solutions lie in their hands, given controllable risk factors. But India wants to wait till the damage is done. I am pained to see that heart disease prevention is not even on the national agenda.”
For a while now, Seth and those in his league have been seeking from the government a legislation on trans-fat to disallow food establishments from functioning unless they control trans-fat servings.
“What stops India from legislating on this front when almost the entire Europe and the US have started weeding out trans-fats from their system? It is time politics was delinked from health and expenditure on health seen as an investment and not routine expense,” says Seth, who feels the government has a daunting task ahead, with people not yet ready to take charge of their health.
"We urgently need a national awareness campaign for heart, on the lines of that for AIDS and polio. School curriculum must be altered to talk not just about health and hygiene but also about heart diseases and risk factors. Tapping the young would ensure a healthier nation,” says Seth, calling for a genuine public-private partnership in the sector.
Besides, he feels, India must consider tax reductions on import of heart devices and drugs which cost a fortune. "I prefer prevention to cure," he says, smilingly, not forgetting to mention the theme for this year's World Heart Day (the last Sunday of every September). It goes: “Work on the heart…”
