Tackling Sri Lanka’s emerging health epidemic

Whilst Sri Lanka has made impressive strides in the fight against diseases such as malaria, measles and maternal deaths, a new threat looms on the horizon, heart disease.

Sri Lanka’s hidden epidemic

The figures make stark reading, every year more and more people are dying of heart disease. In the Ministry of Health’s Morbidity and Mortality Report for 2007, the latest to be published, Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) killed more than twice as many people as any other of the diseases selected for special attention.

In total, 4,536 people died in hospitals around Sri Lanka of the disease. More alarming still are the figures from death registrations. At least 2,000 more people are dying of Ischaemic Heart Disease, than the hospital figures show. One can reasonably assume that these people are dying before they could be taken to hospital. Although frightening, the statistics are not at all surprising. IHD can strike at any time and can cause cardiac arrest (the heart stopping) within a few seconds. When this happens there is only one treatment that is proven to work, defibrillation. Without rapid defibrillation, a victim of cardiac arrest will almost certainly die.

Treatment where and when you

need it

Defibrillation involves a special electrical current being passed through the heart to stun the heart and allow it to pump blood again. It is very effective, but its effectiveness wears off with time. In fact studies show that the chance of success falls by about 10 per cent every minute.  It doesn’t take a math professor to work out that after 10 minutes no one survives. So the problem is that the doctors and their defibrillator can’t get to the patient in time to save them.  However, there are two factors that many countries use to overcome this barrier: CPR training for the general public and the use of AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) by trained, non-medical personnel.

Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)

Unless you carry an AED around with you, it is unlikely that you will be able to give the treatment in time to save a loved one’s life.  However, CPR is a technique that is proven to buy time, effectively keeping the victim alive until an AED arrives. Anyone can learn CPR, it just take a few hours training by a skilled instructor.  The technique is considered to be so essential that in many countries, such as Germany and Australia it is required to pass your driving test. If everyone knew how to perform these basic skills, many lives would be saved every year, may be even your own!

So learn how to save a life through CPR. The techniques taught are continuously being refined by research, so make sure that your trainer is qualified to teach using the latest methods, the so-called ‘the 2010 Guidelines’.

Automated External Defibrillators

Although these life-saving machines have only recently been approved by the Cosmetics, Drugs and Devices Authority for use in Sri Lanka, they have been used by trained personnel outside hospitals in the UK for more than 30 years. Many countries now have ‘Public Access Defibrillators.’ this means that AEDs are placed in public places such as airports, train stations, busy offices and shopping malls so that members of the public can use them in an emergency. It is a testimony to their safety that litigious societies like the USA are willing to allow their use by non-medical people. Colombo Golf Course, the Bank of Ceylon and others are now leading the way in Sri Lanka to make these life-saving devices available should you need one.

Dr. Steven Cokeram, Chief Medical Officer, Med1 (Pvt) Limited