Vol. 1, Issue 1, Part A (2019)

The WHO NCD (Non-Communicable Disease Alliance) Warns South Asian Countries including Bangladesh about the ‘aggressive’ spread of the diseases such as heart problems and diabetes affecting people mostly in younger age. “They should be earning money for the family but they are impacted by diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.” Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, heart arrhythmia, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, and venous thrombosis. CVDs are the number 1 cause of death globally: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. An estimated 17.7 million people died from CVDs in 2015, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million were due to stroke. Over three-quarters of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. Out of the 17 million premature deaths (under the age of 70) due to no communicable diseases in 2015, 82% are in low- and middle-income countries, and 37% are caused by CVDs. Most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioral risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol using population-wide strategies. People with cardiovascular disease or who are at high cardiovascular risk (due to the presence of one or more risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia or already established disease) need early detection and management using counselling and medicines, as appropriate. (WHO Media Canter, May 2017). According to the latest WHO data published in May 2014, Coronary Heart Disease Deaths in Bangladesh reached 50,708 or 6.96% of total deaths. The age adjusted Death Rate is 53.53 per 100,000 of population ranks Bangladesh #150 in the world. Cardiovascular Diseases in Bangladesh Statistics on Overall Impact and Specific Effect on Demographic groups. Annual mortality rate (per 100,000 people) = 213.0; annual years of healthy life lost (per 100,000 people 4634.0; change in annual years of healthy life lost (since 1990). The percent change in annual years of healthy life lost per 100,000 people between 1990 and 2013. Years of healthy life lost, also called Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), is the sum of years of life lost to premature death and years lived with disability (adjusted for the severity of a condition). This accounts for population change and does not standardize on age differences. Cardiovascular Diseases in Bangladesh 100.8%. Range across all Global Disease Burden - Minute - 100%, Average 94.34%, Max 1.62 MILLION, percentage of years of healthy life lost attributed to risk factors 87.9%, These risk factors contributed to, and were thought to be responsible for, an estimated 89.2% of the total deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases in Bangladesh during 2013.