Kerala - Others   

`Improve medical care facilities for stroke victims'

Special Correspondent

KOHIKODE: The need to improve facilities in hospitals in the State for treatment of stroke, known popularly as "brain attack," was stressed on World Stroke Day on Saturday.

V.G. Pradeep Kumar, consultant neurologist at Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode and secretary of the Kozhikode chapter of Indian Medical Association, said in Kerala, facilities for latest medical care for stroke victims were confined to a few hospitals; and these were mostly in the private sector.

"Intravenous thrombolytic therapy, considered most effective, is available only in a few hospitals. As it has to be administered within three hours of the patient developing symptoms of stroke, it is essential that at least one or two hospitals in a district should have the facility of thrombolytic therapy," he said.

Physicians also stressed the need to develop rehabilitation programmes for those who suffered stroke. They need physical, occupational, psychological and social rehabilitation. In North Kerala region, there is an urgent need for more hospitals with latest stroke-treatment facilities. Government hospitals also have to be provided these facilities in a big way.

"This is now considered an urgent need, as brain attacks have become one of the most debilitating non-communicable diseases, causing significant morbidity," Dr Pradeep Kumar said.

Stroke incidence and prevalence is less in India compared to most Asian and Western countries, partly because the population of the elderly is less than in developed countries. The annual incidence of stroke in India is about 105 per one lakh population while in the West, it is about 145 per one lakh population.

Specialists in treating strokes believe hypertension, diabetes and smoking are among the major risk factors for stroke. Stroke in the younger generation is higher in India than other countries. About 10-15 per cent of strokes have been found to have occurred in population below 40 years.

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