Stroke is the second most common cause of death in India. About 1,85,000 stroke cases are reported every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds, said AIIMS neuro expert.
In Short
- Stroke is the second most common cause of death in India, as per expert.
- About 5.2 million strokes were witnessed in children, aged less than 20 years.
- Many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure required to treat stroke patients.
India suffers at least one stroke death every four minutes, said neurology experts at the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Friday.
Dr MV Padma Srivastava, Professor of Neurology at AIIMS said that “Stroke is the second most common cause of death in India. About 1,85,000 stroke cases are reported every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke death every 4 minutes.”
Speaking at an event, Dr Padma said, “Stroke is the second most common cause of death in India. About 1,85,000 stroke cases are reported every year in India with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke death every 4 minutes.”
According to Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), India bore most of the burden of stroke with 68.6 per cent of the incidence of stroke, 70.9 per cent of stroke deaths and 77.7 per cent of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost.
These figures are alarming for the country with many living in poor resource settings. Another alarming and important finding of the GBD 2010 stroke project is 5.2 million (31 per cent) strokes were witnessed in children, aged less than 20 years. The stroke burden is greater in India and more so among younger and middle-aged people.
“In spite of these alarming figures, many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure and organization required to treat stroke patients quickly and efficiently and do not deliver adequate stroke care. The stroke services across the country especially in public sector hospitals is deficient in many aspects,” said the expert.
Dr Padma added that one of the solutions is to adopt telestroke models in poor resource settings. “Implementation of telemedicine/telestroke facilities is an important step for bridging the economically and geographically challenged and underprivileged sections of the society.”