Stroke emerges as bigger killer than heart attacks: Min

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Cerebral stroke or brain haemorrhage has emerged as the bigger killer compared to heart attacks claiming 6.39 lakh lives against 5.54 lakh due to heart disease, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi told the Rajya Sabha today citing an Indian Council of Medical Research study.

As per estimates from National Cancer Registry Programme of ICMR, cancer deaths totalled about 4 lakh every year in India.

The main causes of rising number of stroke were changing demography with more ageing population, higher prevalence of hypertension due to changing life style and stress, smoking and diabetes apart from possible roles of dyslipidemia, she said.

Replying to a question, the Minister said in a written reply that diabetes and cardiovascular diseases were increasing in India though the exact number of people having heart diseases was not known.

According to the revised WHO estimates, India has approximately 32 million people with diabetes and projected to touch 57.2 million in 2025.

There was an increase in prevalence of Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) in urban areas in India. IHD prevalence had risen considerably during the past decade and though there was an increase in prevalence of IHD in rural areas also but it was not so steep there, she said.

The Minister said the government proposed to initiate and implement a "National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardio vascular diseases (CVD) and Stroke" to reduce the adverse health impact of diabetes, heart diseases and stroke.

Under the proposed national programme IEC will be one of the major components to sensitise the public about the dangerous effects of these diseases and the need for prevention.

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