Cardiovascular Disease - the Silent Killer in Rural Andhra Pradesh

New Delhi, Delhi, India

National and international health research experts from the The George Institute for International Health and The University of Queensland in Australia, the Byrraju Foundation, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and the CARE Foundation in India, meet today in New Delhi to discuss progress of a major new health initiative in rural Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh Rural Health Initiative - APRHI aims at highlighting the enormous problem of cardiovascular disease in the region.

National and international health research experts from the The George Institute for International Health and The University of Queensland in Australia, the Byrraju Foundation, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and the CARE Foundation in India, meet today in New Delhi to discuss progress of a major new health initiative in rural Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh Rural Health Initiative - APRHI aims at highlighting the enormous problem of cardiovascular disease in the region.

The Andhra Pradesh Rural Health Initiative (APRHI) is a collaboration between The George Institute for International Health and The University of Queensland in Australia, the Byrraju Foundation, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and the CARE Foundation in India. Since 2003, the APRHI group has worked to define the main health problems in the study region and to develop novel ways of dealing with them. The pilot study involved 45 villages in East and West Godavari Districts of Andhra Pradesh, assessing a population of 180162. The Collaboration has enabled the group to bring clear evidence to the targeting of health interventions in the villages participating in the Byrraju Foundation's rural development program.

Extensive research conducted over the last two years has showed cardiovascular disease being responsible for an unexpectedly large proportion of all deaths. Contrary to widely held beliefs, communicable diseases such as malaria and childhood infections were responsible for relatively few deaths.

According to the recent WHO report, cardiovascular diseases in India have claimed more than 250 lives per 100,000 deaths in the country. The repercussion of cardiovascular diseases has led to an adverse effect on the India economy with estimated reduction of more than 1 per cent in India's GDP by 2015. India's economy is estimated to lose more than US $ 200 million of the national income of the country.

Dr Bruce Neal of The George Institute for International Health said, "Today's meeting is a great opportunity and a platform to move research forward in presence of global health experts. Having current and reliable data about causes of death and disease is a prerequisite for the best use of scarce health care resources. It is our endeavour to provide information and action on the research carried our by APRHI and build a strong action plan to combat the deadly situation prevailing in rural Andhra Pradesh and India. Going ahead in Geroge Institute's endeavour and commitment towards the research in rural India, we would like to start our office in Hyderabad within the next twelve months."

Professor Alan Lopez of the University of Queensland, Australia acknowledged the support of the Welcome Trust and said that the participation of the WHO and World Bank at today's meeting is a strong signal of the importance of the research towards global health development. "There is a critical need for up-to-date information about the causes of death in rapidly developing areas of the world like rural India. This workshop will help share knowledge and further discussion about the rapid evolution of health problems in India." he added.

Professor K Srinath Reddy, Head of Cardiology Department, AIIMS and CCDC Director echoed Professor Lopez's comments, stating in India, as in many other developing countries, chronic diseases are fast becoming the leading health problem that needs urgent attention. "As epidemics of heart attack, stroke, depression and diabetes are only increasing, we need to understand the vast majority of people in India have little or no access to those treatments proven to prevent these conditions.

"There is a major public health transition, and it is much more rapid than anticipated. We found that in all age groups, 32 per cent of deaths were due to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. The possibility of prevalence of these diseases in varying proportions in other rural regions of India cannot be ruled out", he added.

Dr K Rama Raju Chief Executive Officer of the Byrraju Foundation said that innovative, affordable and sustainable new health programs that can be incorporated into primary healthcare services in poor rural areas is a priority for the project.

Dr Krishnam Raju, Chair of the CARE Foundation said that while the residents of rural Andhra Pradesh would be the first to benefit from such a program, today's meeting "ensures the potential of exporting such surveillance systems and benefits to other regions of India and indeed to other resource-poor settings around the world."

Recognising the need to collect reliable and accurate data on causes of death in India, representatives from the WHO, World Bank, the Indian Ministry of Health and Universities around the world are holding a two day workshop on "Mortality surveillance in developing countries", in New Delhi, to discuss the huge problem of tracking "Western' diseases such as stroke and heart attack as they evolve in India and other Asian-Pacific nations.

About APRHI - Andhra Pradesh Rural Health Initiative

The APRHI Collaboration works to improve health status, prevent and manage non-communicable disease, prevent premature death, and enhance access to health services for the people of rural Andhra Pradesh. We aim to achieve this through the design, implementation and evaluation of affordable and sustainable interventions that can be incorporated in the existing primary health care infrastructure of rural areas.

Contacts

Abhishek Mahapatra, Comma Consulting, +91 (011) 41354408, amahapatra@comma.in

Paul Davies, Public Affairs Manager, The George Institute for International Health, (+61 2) 9993 4510 / (+61) 04 454 165

Source: The George Institute for International Health (Business Wire India)

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