The Viet Nam Stroke Association yesterday launched a campaign to raise awareness about prevention and treatment of stroke to mark World Stroke Day on October 29.
The Viet Nam Stroke Association yesterday launched a campaign to raise awareness about prevention and treatment of stroke to mark World Stroke Day on October 29.
As part of the campaign, foreign experts apprised 350 local doctors about the advances in the treatment of the condition.
Written material outlining the ailment will be delivered to hospitals and clinics nation-wide to increase awareness of stroke and how to combat it.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen said: "Strokes can be prevented and their fatality and disability rates can be reduced if people know how to prevent them and recognise their symptoms."
"Prompt emergency medical care and immediate treatment can prevent a fatal or disabling stroke because time is critical."
The country has only 16 stroke units, mostly in HCM City and Ha Noi.
Xuyen said her ministry would set up more stroke units at hospitals to provide emergency treatment for patients, helping reduce the fatality and disability rates.
A programme initiated by her ministry with support from the World Stroke Organisation had trained more than 8,000 doctors around the country in the last few years in identifying and treating the disease.
Prof Michael Brainin of the Danube-University Krems, Austria, said it was recognised that in Asia, the incidence of stroke and other non-communicable diseases was especially common and rising.
"It is important to raise awareness of prevention and treatment of stroke."
Professor Le Van Thanh, chairman of the Viet Nam Stroke Association, said stroke was the third leading cause of death in the world after heart disease and cancer and a leading cause of disability.
Every six seconds someone died of stroke, he said.
Around 200,000 new cases were diagnosed in Viet Nam every year, he added.
(Source: VNS)
