Speakers at a roundtable discussion called for raising awareness on stroke and immediate treatment to reduce death.
Deaths and paralysis from stroke can be reduced by creating awareness among the general people, they said.
The daily ‘Bangladesh Post’ in collaboration with the Impulse Hospital Dhaka organised the discussion titled, “Stroke: Mass awareness & Immediate Treatment’ on the ninth instant at the seminar hall of Impulse Hospital in the city’s Tejgaon area.
Director General (DG), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Principal Information Officer (PIO) Begum Kamrun Nahar, Managing Director of Impulse Hospital Dhaka Prof Dr Zaheer Al-Amin, Editor of daily ‘Bangladesh Post’ Sharif Shahab Uddin and Deputy Managing Editor ‘Bangladesh Post’ attended the discussion, among others.
The speakers said lack of information and poor control and management of risk factors have contributed to the growing incidences of stroke.
People suffered by stroke are need emergency and prompt treatment because the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke the less damage is likely to happen, they said.
They also called for strengthening capacities of the primary care health workforce for basic stroke management and efficient referral to specialised hospitals, particularly in rural areas. As the leading cause of strokes, hypertension can be managed if regular physical activity was encouraged – just 30 minutes of exercise five days a week could prevent 1 in 20 cases of cardiovascular disease, said the speakers.
In Bangladesh, which is ranked 84 in WHO’s mortality rate index (out of 163 countries), stroke is the third leading cause of death. The majority of cases (82.3 per cent) occur in individuals over the age of forty; hypertension (63 per cent) was found to be the main risk factor for stroke, followed by heart disease (24 per cent), and diabetes (21 per cent).
