STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: With the aim of disseminating awareness regarding cardiovascular disease particularly in rural areas a day long screening, awareness cum health checkup camp was organized by Dr Sushil Sharma, Head Department of Cardiology GMC & SSH Jammu at Greenland Palace, Lower Roop Nagar, here on Sunday.
More than 200 people were examined, evaluated and advised during the camp. ECG, Blood Sugar and HBA1C Tests were conducted and free medicines were also given as per the requirements.
While interacting with the patient, Dr Sushil stated that countering the cardiovascular epidemic requires the development of strategies such as the formulation and effective implementation of evidence-based policy, reinforcement of health systems, and emphasis on prevention, early detection, and treatment with the use of both conventional and innovative techniques.
Now cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a leading cause of mortality among adults in India, and their risk factors (tobacco, hypertension, diabetes, overweight, and obesity) are common, he said adding that most risk-factor surveys have focused on young and middle aged adults.
“We measured the prevalence of risk factors for CVD among elderly (age 60 years or more) in rural India. It is now well known that conventional risk factors (smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipidemia, unhealthy diet, and reduced physical activity) together account for more than 95% of population-attributable risk for CVD, and novel risk factors have only a small contribution. These risk factors, attributed to a set of life-style changes are prevalent both in urban and rural India,” he said.
He further elaborated that an additional cause of concern in Indians and South Asians is that they tend to have more severe manifestations of CVD and higher fatality rates. Despite having a lower conventional CVD risk factor burden, the incidence of major cardiovascular events and mortality among individuals of low-income countries (96% from South Asia, of whom 83% were from India) was higher than in middle- and high-income countries. The case fatality rates for cardiovascular events in low-income countries, represented largely by India, was 17%; this is much higher than in higher-income countries, which had a case fatality rate of 6.5%.
In India, under diagnosis and underreporting of CVD are more frequent among the poor. Economically underprivileged patients with CVD are less likely to receive evidence-based treatments, because medical treatment often involves large out-of-pocket payments and with the introduction of Ayushman healthcare scheme this has been overcomed and everyone irrespective of socioeconomic strata is able to achieve equitable and affordable healthcare.
Prominent Members of the area Shamsher Singh Manhas (Former Member Parliament), Kuldeep Chib (Corporator), Rekha Manhas (Corporator), Sukhdev Singh Jamwal, Suresh Khajuria, Joginder Chib, Ved Parkash and Dushyant Singh appreciated the efforts of Dr Sushil and his team for conducting Cardiac Awareness Cum health checkup camp in their area.
Others who were part of this camp included Dr Nasir Ali Choudhary (Cardiologist), Dr Dhaneshwer Kapoor and Dr Anitipal Singh (Orthopaedician).
Paramedics and Volunteers includes Kamal Sharma, Raghav Rajput, Ranjeet Singh, Rajkumar, Akshay Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Pankaj Kerni, Aman Gupta and Sunil Pandit.