KARACHI, Sept 13: While in Pakistan more than half million people were found to be suffering from the deadly disease, stroke, which is associated with lethal complications like speech and hearing impairments, besides blindness and paralysis of one side of the body, majority of the population in the country lacks awareness to take precautionary measures against this preventable disease.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global burden of stroke is enormous as the disease, which is ranked third, worldwide, among the causes of death, accounts for physical impairment of many patients.

The views were expressed by neurologists at a seminar on “Stroke Prevention 2003- Risk Factors and Current Management,” organized, jointly by The Pakistan Stroke Society and Pharmevo, on Saturday.

Prominent among those who spoke on the topic included Dr Saad Shafqat (Aga Khan University), Dr Shahid Baig (AKU), Dr Sarwar Siddiqui (Dow Medical College), Dr Azam Shafqat (AKU) and Dr Shiraz Haider.

Dr Saad Shafqat, an eminent neurologist from AKU, in his presentation describing stroke as a preventable disease, said stroke risk could be reduced by 50 per cent by detecting and controlling high blood pressure, which is one of the major causes of it.

“Other stroke risk factors include high blood cholesterol, tobacco addiction, poor diabetic control, an abnormality of the heart rhythm, called ‘artrial fibrillation’ ( In this problem blood clotting from the heart shoot up into the brain) and narrowing of the carotid artery in the neck, the major blood supply route to brain,” he added.

Referring to a survey conducted in 1994 in the country, he pointed out that in Pakistan there were more than 300,000 heart patients, with an addition of 0.5 per cent annually.

According to him, in the country, the stroke treatment facilities were inadequate and majority of the population was unaware of lethal aspect of stroke.

Expressing his dismay over prevailing standard of treatment of stroke, he said many non-specialist doctors were handling stroke patients, owing to which the diseases could not be managed effectively.—PPI