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Heartline Magazine April - June 2004
Heart Disease a Global Threat
Cheap food, cigarettes and city life are causing millions of
early deaths in the developing world, according to a report released recently.
Heart Disease, once considered an illness of the rich, is killing more and more
people in poor countries. "The risk of cardiovascular disease is growing as
populations increase in cities," notes the report issued by Columbia
University's Earth Institute in New York. "There, food is steadily
becoming cheaper and exercise is scarce. The prevalence of obesity and of
diabetes and of its precursor conditions, are rising faster in urban rather than
in rural areas." "The tobacco scourge, now at epidemic levels in less developed
countries, exacts its toll in many ways, but cardiovascular deaths are its
principal mode of mortality."
Unlike in the United States, few are working to help people
quit smoking, to eat healthier diets and to get some exercise, the report says.
The result is that people are dying young - in their most productive economic
years. The loss of middle-aged workers will affect entire economies, the report
cautions. In the United States, where heart disease is far and away the No.1
killer, there are 116 deaths per 100,000 men aged 35 to 59 from heart disease
and stroke each year.
In Russia, there are 576 such deaths per 100,000 men the
same age. "Cardiovascular disease has always been seen as a disease of affluent
and older people in developed nations, yet 80 percent of all CVD deaths occur in
low- and middle-income countries," Philip Poole-Wilson, president of the Geneva
based non profit World Heart Federation said in a statement. " A major finding
of this report is that in developing countries the onset of CVD occurs among
younger people, increasingly affecting those of working and productive age."
In South Africa for example, 41 percent of all heart deaths
were in people aged between 35 and 64. In the United States, the Federation
predicts, 73 percent of heart deaths will be in people Over 75. "Until now,
governments, health authorities and the medical community have neglected CVD and
the burden it imposes on developing economies," Janet Voute, chief executive
officer of the World Heart Federation, said in a statement. "Unless intervention
programmes are into effect now we will witness a global health crisis in
developing countries as skilled workers die or become disabled, women are
widowed and older people require expensive medical support for disability
related to CVD." The Columbia University team studied Brazil, South Africa,
China, Tatarstan and India, combining population estimates with current death
rates suffer and workforce data to calculate the potential effects of heart
disease.
CVD biggest killer worldwide. Chair of the European Heart
Network, Susanne Volqvartz reporting in the March 2003 issue of HeartMatters
noted that cardiovascular diseases are responsible for over four million deaths
in Europe each year. This is almost half of all deaths. Coronary heart disease (CHD)
and stroke account for the majority of these deaths. CHD by itself accounts for
nearly two million deaths each year in Europe.
Worldwide, cardiovascular disease was responsible for 16.5
million deaths in 2002. Three fourths of them were in low and middle income
countries, except in very low-income countries and in those countries in the
African region that are affected by AIDS.
Projected figures indicate that by 2020 there will be 25
million deaths yearly due to CVD, 19 million of them from low and middle-income
countries. That is the bad news. The good news is that CVD is largely
preventable. Indeed, there s good evidence, according to Susanne Volqvartz, to
suggest that at least 75% of new cases of CHD can be explained by the major risk
factors, namely poor diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use.
Therefore the key to reducing early death and suffering from
CVD is to reduce the risk factors.
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