Vietnam Records Surging Number of People with Heart Diseases

Vietnam in recent years have recorded a surge in the number of people admitted with heart disease, said Chairman Nguyen Lan Viet of the Vietnam Heart Association Professor at a national convention on October 10 in Hanoi. Accordingly, one or two out of every four Vietnamese adults are at the risk of having heart diseases. The number of people suffering from heart disease is on the upward trend. Worse, in 2000, the country had around 16.3% adults having high blood pressure yet in 2009, the rate of adults with high blood pressure leaped to 24.5% and this year, it is 46%, an alarming level. Professor Viet warned that the death toll due to heart diseases in developed countries has been on a downward trend meanwhile it has growing in developing nations including Vietnam. Furthermore, consequences of heart disease are burden not only for patients but also for the society. (sggp.org.vn Oct 11)