Vijayawada, September 30, 2021: Experts at the Andhra Hospitals stressed the need for awareness about heart ailments and treatment and other facilities available to mitigate the loss of life due to heart attacks, which has been the most common cause of deaths across the world.
The Hindu’s Future India Club in association with Andhra Hospitals conducted an awareness programme on the occasion of “World Heart Day” on the premises of the hospital’s Heart and Brain Institute here. The theme of the day this year was “Harnessing the power of digital health to improve awareness, prevention and management of Cardio Vascular Diseases”. Speaking on the occasion, Andhra Hospitals chief of children’s services P.V. Rama Rao said the hospital had performed over 2,000 heart surgeries and interventions on children with a success rate of 98%, which is a record, with the cooperation of many NGOs. He explained symptoms and signs of heart diseases in children and said most of them could be cured if detected early.
Senior cardiologist J. Sreemannarayana said that 18 million people die due to heart issues in the world every year. “In India, 50% of the deaths due to heart issues were of people aged below 50 and 25% of them were aged below 40,” he said.
Dr. Sreemannarayana said that many heart patients died during the COVID pandemic not because of COVID infection, but due to lack of awareness that hospitals were open and hesitation to venture out during lockdown according to the reports published in thehindu.com.
“Telehealth is the need of the hour and the WHD theme promotes the same. People should learn to contact hospitals whenever needed without any hesitation,” he said. Every person should undergo a health checkup once a year after crossing 30 years of age, he added.
Paediatric cardiologist K. Vikram said around 7,000 children were born with heart ailments in the State as per a study, and only 10% of them got treated. “Children can develop heart ailments even after birth. We have seen children coming up with heart issues post-COVID infection. However, treatment in time will help 99% of cases,” he said.
Cardiothoracic surgeon R. Dileep said that changing lifestyle had a huge impact on the health of the heart and good diet and food habits from childhood are important. “Instead of changing food habits after falling ill, one should make it a habit to have a balanced diet by avoiding processed food since childhood. Parents should encourage children to buy fruits and explain to them what is bad and good,” he said.
Cardiac interventionist Krishna Prasad, anesthetist J. Ramesh, Andhra Hospitals chief marketing officer A. Nagendra Babu and others were present. Participants interacted with the doctors and got their doubts cleared in the programme.
