Heart disease, usually seen
as a quintessentially Western problem, is
rapidly becoming a major threat to the developing
world, costing millions of lives and billions
of dollars, top cardiologists said.
Worsening diets, lack of exercise and smoking
mean heart attacks and strokes are taking a
mounting toll on poorer countries, experts told
the World Congress of Cardiology.
"They now cause four times as many deaths
in mothers in most developing countries than
do childbirth and HIV/
AIDS combined,"
said Professor Stephen Leeder of the University
of Sydney.
"Worldwide, HIV/AIDS causes three million
deaths a year -- cardiovascular disease causes
17.5 million."
In some developing countries, the risk of
dying from heart disease is actually many
times higher than in rich countries.
In Brazil, 28 percent of the population die
from a heart attack or stroke before the age
of 65 -- around three times the average in
North America and most of Europe.
The emergence of new economic powerhouses
in Asia and Latin America is creating societies
in which over-eating and malnutrition go side
by side, fuelling health problems at both
ends of the wealth spectrum.
In China, the World
Health Organization estimates that
economic losses due to cardiovascular and
other chronic diseases will total $558
billion between 2005 and 2015, while India
will lose $236 billion and Russia $303
billion.
Dr Valentin Fuster, president of the World
Heart Federation, said the United
Nations must take a lead by including
heart disease among its health-related Millennium
Development Goals.
While the world needed to continue to focus
on big infectious killers like AIDS and malaria,
the overall approach to healthcare had to
be rebalanced, he said.
Many of the measures needed to improve cardiovascular
health were simple and low cost, experts argued.
Education programs on smoking and diet could
be highly effective, while a basic drug like
aspirin -- which has been shown to saves lives
-- cost only a few cents. Yet many of the
world's poor cannot afford even such basic
medication.
Dr Salim Yusuf of Canada's McMaster University
said cardiovascular disease, which was virtually
unknown 100 years ago, was an entirely man-made
disease.
Recent research shows more than 90 percent
of cases are avoidable and a handful of standard
factors are responsible across the globe,
such cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking,
poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise.
"We have the treatments for these risk factors,
so we should treat them," Yusuf said.
Governments around the world could easily
rank the cost-effectiveness of various prevention
measures and implement as many as possible
within their budget limits, he added.
