CVDs to be number 1 killer in India by 2010

HYDERABAD: Mortality due to heart problems would occupy the top slot in the chart of reasons for deaths in India by 2010 followed by deaths due to suicide.
While the mortality trends in 2000 showed infectious diseases followed by cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), there would be a total change in the scenario by 2010 when CVD would be the number one killer followed by suicide and cancer, according to projections by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Alarmed at various studies indicating that heart ailments are going to occupy the top of the chart of deaths in India by 2010, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has formed a committee to recommend ''workable'' strategies to tackle the future number one killer, ICMR director-general Dr N K Ganguly told a select group of doctors and researchers here on Sunday night.
The committee has doctors, scientists, social scientists and industrialists, he said. While some more names are being added to give the committee a broader base and representation, the panel has been asked to recommend strategies that would include means to reduce the burden of cardio-vascular diseases and dibetes, evolve preventable means and ways to creating awareness about preventive cardiology, Ganguly added.
Responding to the representations by cardiologists, Ganguly said factors that trigger cardiac problems are something specific to region.
Hence, strategies should also take into consideration the ethnic diversity, knowledge accessibility, economic capabilities and food habits, Ganguly added.
Interventional cardiologist Dr P C Rath, during his presentation, said while deaths due to cardio-vascular ailments were 457 for a lakh of population in 2000 in India, it would be 534 for a lakh, making 34 per cent of all deaths.
CVDs would include coronary artery disease, rheumative valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, hypertensive heart disease and peripheral vascular disease.
However, the most alarming situation is that CVDs would affect the people in the middle group who would find it very difficult to meet treatment cost in cases of morbidity. It would also knock out the young and earning members of the family and create a big economic and social problem. Only five per cent of the patients would be able to afford the high cost of treatment, Rath said quoting WHO findings.
Diabatologist Dr B K Sahay said diabetes would add to the burden of CVDs in India. By 2010, nine per cent of the population below 30 would be affected by the malady.