India is silently witnessing a stroke epidemic, and this disease is responsible for more deaths every year than those attributed to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria put together. The Director, Max Institute of Neurosciences Dehradun (MIND), Dr AK Singh informed this while delivering his lecture at a Continued Medical Education (CME) programe on ‘Stroke awareness’ at Max hospital here on Sunday.
He informed that the risk of stroke increases after 40 years of age which constitute 35 percent of total population. “Stroke patients must get medical help within 60 minutes of the stroke. Those patients who are moved to a Stroke Care Unit within this golden hour period have much better chances of survival than those who don’t, with mortality rate being eight per cent only compared to 40 per cent otherwise”, he informed. Dr Singh said that one in every five hundred persons in India falls prey to a brain stroke. India records up to 15 lakh cases of acute stroke every year and it is the third leading cause of death.
The Consultant Neuro Surgery at MIND, Dr. Priyamvadha K pointed out the role of surgery in Intra cerebral hemorrhage (ICH). She said that this surgery when done early enough has reduced mortality from this dreadful disease by more than 50 percent. She said that at present MIND is the only facility in Uttarakhand which provides both types of treatment for this disease.
The Professor of Neurology HIHT, Dr. Deepak Goel gave information about the preventive steps one needs to take to reduce the possibility of having a stroke. The risk factors that he point out are hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and smoking. He emphasized upon the need to have a healthy lifestyle comprising of moderate intake of fats, doing regular exercise, controlling diabetes and hypertension and giving up smoking.
The Chief Guest for the occasion was the Director General (DG) Health Services Uttarakhand, Dr. G.S. Joshi. Additional CMO of Dehradun Dr. B.S. Jangpangi, Dr. Mahesh Kuriyal President of Doon Neuro Club President were also present in the occasion.