It was not a routine press interaction, but the information revealed by Dr NC Borah, an acclaimed neurologist of the country, in a meeting simply mesmerized the media persons.
The CMD of GNRC Hospitals, Guwahati disclosed some stunning information regarding the prevalence of stroke in Assam and northeast India. According to Dr Borah every day not less than 80 people in Assam (which has a population of around 30 million) suffers from the stroke.
Dr Borah had interacted with journalists at Guwahati Press Club on October 29 on the occasion of World Stroke Day. It was a actually a health check-up camp for journalists which was organized by GNRC Hospitals.
As the name suggests, the stroke or acute brain disorder occurs all of a sudden irrespective of the age and gender of an individual. The most horrible statistics are that one in six persons in the world will face the stroke in their lifetime. More to it, one person dies from stroke in every six seconds in the globe. The stroke is the third largest killer (after the heart attack and cancer) in India.
“Many patients die on way to the hospital as the common people have very limited knowledge of stroke. The relatives of the patients take longer time to realize that it was stroke and that way the golden period (immediate first three hours after the stroke) is lost.
Otherwise, 70% of patients can be treated and the patients can go back to his work after the treatment,” said the modest neurologist. According to the physicians’ language, a stroke (also known as brain attack) occurs due to the impairment of blood supply to a part of the brain thus reducing or preventing oxygen & nutrient supply.
It leads to sudden brain dysfunction and results in sudden neurological deficit. The severity of stroke depends on the extent of brain damage and the location on the brain where the damage has occurred. Stroke can be classified into two types: one caused by a blockage of a brain blood vessel and the second by the rupture of these blood vessels.
The immediate symptoms of patients will be sudden feeling of weakness, blurring of vision, difficulty to walk & speech, sudden confusion, loss of balance, severe headache, vertigo, vomiting etc. There may be also a mild stroke, which an individual suffers for some hours. The mini stroke has all the symptoms of stroke but those may disappear in 24 hours. But it should not be ignored as a mild stroke can be the warning of an imminent major stroke.
Mentionable is that the stroke claims nearly six million lives annually in the world. The WHO estimates 80% stroke cases in the globe will occur in low and middle income countries including India in the coming days. The populous country (over one billion) records over 1.7 million stroke cases annually, where 30 per cent succumb to the brain disorder and among the surviving most of them have to lead a disabled life. India is apprehended to report over 1.5 million cases of stroke
annually by 2015.
Dr Borah highlighted about some risk factors leading to stroke that include high blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar with the habit of smoking, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity etc. Similarly the growing ages increases the risk of stroke. Various studies confirm that males are more prone to stroke than women.