New Delhi: Even as India has been witnessing a rapid increase in the incidents of stroke and heart attack, experts in the field of medical science on Thursday revealed that India’s Northeast, especially Assam is at high risk of cardiovascular diseases.
“If you look at Northeast and especially Assam there is a high risk of stroke. In Northeast India, there is a practice, especially in tea garden areas, where they use or add salt to the tea. During humid months and hot months, they lose a lot of salt. So, this is one of the reasons for maximum stroke in Northeast,” Dr Jeyaraj Durai Pandian, president-elect of, World Stroke Organisation told ETV Bharat in New Delhi.
He further said that lifestyle factors and diet patterns may also have high salt content and that is another reason for a high number of strokes. “We need to do a lot of campaigns and public awareness to avoid the use of salt and lifestyle changes. ICMR is already taking steps in this direction,” said Dr Pandian who is also a neurology professor at the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Punjab.
Giving an estimate, Dr Pandian said that there are 192-200 incidents of strokes per one lakh population in the Northeast. The prevalence of hypertension, a major risk factor for stroke, amongst people in Assam and especially tea garden workers has been reported to be 33 per cent to 60.8 per cent.
When contacted, a senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Science (ICMR) also admitted that the number of hemorrhagic strokes is high in the northeastern region. “There are more incidents of hemorrhagic stroke in comparison to the ischemic stroke in the Northeast. There is a need for hypertension prevention in the Northeast so that the number of hemorrhagic strokes is less,” the scientist who did not wish to be named said.
Hemorrhagic stroke is one major reason for more severe strokes which lead to death. “Hypertension and diabetes are the major causes of stroke. Another reason that we have identified in the Northeast is the intake of tobacco and drugs. People who don’t have any other symptoms, they may be having strokes,” the scientist said.
“Normally it happens in higher age groups but as hypertension is uncontrolled, we are also witnessing hemorrhagic strokes,” the scientist said. Giving statistics, the ICMR scientist said that in Assam and the northeast, 60 per cent of the population has hypertension.
As per data, about 1,85,000 stroke cases are reported every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke and death every four minutes.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently said that hypertension is the single most important leading cause of cardiovascular disease mortality globally and in the WHO South-East Asia Region. With almost half of the people with hypertension in the region unaware of their condition. There is an urgent need to scale up hypertension services, to prevent, detect and control hypertension, the global health watchdog said.
