'5 p.c. people in country have heart rhythm problem'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 4.

Cardiac Arrhythmia or Rhythm Disturbance of the Heart afflicts more than 5 per cent of India's population. Rhythm disturbance is abnormally fast or very slow heart rate which is due to faulty electrical impulses to cardiac muscles. Those with scaring of heart muscles due to previous heart attacks are specially prone to this. This problem is potentially fatal and medication available till now is known to cause serious side-effects to vital organs like liver, thyroid, nervous system and eyes.

Giving this information at a press conference here on Wednesday, Dr. Ranjit Suri, Consultant Cardiologist and Cardiac Arrhythmilogist, Harvard Medical School, USA, said that as of now there were various non-medicine treatments available like Electro-Physiology and Special Pacemaker Implantation. While the former was relatively cheap, certain cases required the latter treatment, which cost up to $22,000 at present. The need for countries like India was to build cheaper `Special Pacemakers' or `Shock Boxes' as he termed them. This was being opposed by the five companies, which manufactured these at present, fearing loss of profits, Dr. Suri said.

Dr. Rabin Chakravarty, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, Apollo Hospital, said that the most important task at present was to make general doctors and the public aware of this problem and the availability of treatment. A free camp for arrhythmia patients was held and more than 100 patients had been given treatment.

Dr. Suri said that his interactions with doctors at Apollo, Nizam Institute of Medical Science and Osmania General Hospital were very fruitful and hoped for more such interactions among those working in this field.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Balayogi promises to take up BHEL problems
Next     : Farmer kills wife, children; hangs himself