High heart disease cases in young people worry experts

WORLD HEART DAY|HEART DISASE|HEALTH

Cardiologists in Uganda under their umbrella body, Uganda Heart Association, have increasingly, over the years, sounded alarm over the increased cases of heart disease among young people.

A heart attack occurs when blood flow to any part of the heart stops, causing damage to the heart muscle.

The experts attribute the rising cases to lifestyle habits that include smoking, drinking alcohol, eating junk food and sitting for long hours.

Although heart diseases are on the rise, Uganda has only one cardiac catheterisation lab, located at Uganda Heart Institute in Mulago, Kampala.

"This cath lab serves a population of 35 million people and is treated by a team of 12 cardiologists. This means that the majority of Ugandans visit hospitals that do not handle heart issues, which may result in wrong diagnosis by non-cardiologists," said Dr Erias Sebatta, a senior cardiologist at the Uganda Heart Institute, said during a New Vision interview.

According to a report by the Uganda Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases are second to infectious diseases in causing death in Africa, accounting to 11% of the total deaths.

"In 2012, about 18 million people died from cardiovascular diseases, representing 31% of all global deaths (WHO 2014). Heart attack is the second leading cause of death in Africa preceded by communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The in-hospital mortality following heart attack is as high as 10%," reads the report.

"We still continue to face various challenges such as late presentation to health facilities, inadequate infrastructures such as intensive care units in most of the hospitals, missed diagnosis because of failure to recognise symptoms and inability to interprete ectrocardiogram findings and absence of an efficient emergency medical service," Sebatta said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) target is to lessen non-communicable disease mortality rate by 2025 by reducing the premature deaths due to cardiovascular disease.