TUESDAY, Sept. 24, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Cardiovascular disease is a worldwide pandemic that "respects no borders," and isn't just a disease of affluent countries.
It is, in fact, the leading cause of death in the world, according to an editorial in today's issue of Circulation.
The editorial, issued to coincide with World Heart Day on Sept. 29, points out that cardiovascular disease affects about 150 million people around the world.
In 1999, heart disease and stroke killed about 17 million people worldwide, 30 percent of all deaths. About 14.7 million people died of heart disease and stroke worldwide in 1990.
"We must do a more effective job of translating scientific advances into programs that can save lives in all parts of the world," says the editorial's lead author, Dr. Robert O. Bonow, president of the American Heart Association. "These advances have led to enormous gains in cardiovascular disease knowledge, but a gap remains in implementing this knowledge. The message must be loud and clear to world leaders, health-care providers, and the public that much of the death and disability from cardiovascular disease is preventable."
The editorial dismisses the belief that atherosclerosis -- the narrowing of arteries that causes heart disease and most strokes -- is a disease of wealthy nations such as the United States. World Heart Federation statistics indicate that 80 percent of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease occur in low- to middle-income countries such as Russia, Poland and China.
Obesity, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle and smoking are the underlying causes of the increase in cardiovascular deaths.
"In the United States, we are already facing a crisis in cardiovascular disease with an obesity and diabetes epidemic, an aging, sedentary population with a widening access-to-care gap. Internationally, these problems are worse - the access-to-care gap is growing so quickly in certain countries that it will son by an unbridgeable chasm," Bonow says.
"The answer is deceptively simple -- population-based, culturally tailored prevention programs," he says.
More information
The American Heart Association offers you a guide to assessing your own risk of cardiovascular disease.
