Heart disease and stroke are the no. 1 killers all over the world. In the USA 3,50,000 people die of heart attacks every year - in India the number is a staggering 25,00,000. In Mumbai city alone, more than 20,000 lose their lives every year - 2,500 every day or one life every 33 seconds.
Heart disease accounted for 24.2 per cent of deaths in 1990 in India. In 2020, it will be the cause of nearly 42 per cent of deaths from diseases.
As many as 30 million people in India currently suffer from heart diseases. By 2010, one million Indians are expected to be suffering from this silent disease.
By 2015, heart disease is likely to be the single largest cause of death in the country.
Young Indians have 5-10 fold higher rate of heart attacks and death as compared to western population.
The mean age of our population which gets heart attacks is at least 10 years younger than what is seen in the developed countries. 25-30% of heart attacks seen in South Asian countries occur below the age of 40 years whereas the corresponding figures for west are less than 5%.
The severity of the attacks, too, seems greater for Indians. They are three times more likely than Americans to have a second heart attack, and twice as likely to die from it.
About half of all heart attacks occur in Indian men under 55, and a fourth of them in those younger than 40 - something uncommon in other populations. Some studies in India have found that those below 45 constitute as much as 25-40 per cent of heart attack patients. |
