Irish heart disease deaths highest in EU
Ireland slumps in 36th place in a league of 47 countries examined as part of the wide-ranging study and lags far behind Greece, Mexico, Chile, Slovenia and Cuba.
Of every 100,000 Irish men, 185 die of heart disease, compared to 35.7 in Japan, which topped the league and 83 in Greece, which is in 11th place.
The EU average was 100 deaths per 100,000. The Irish death toll was described as ‘astonishingly high’ by the report author, Prof Fabio Levi of the Institute of Social and Preventative Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Prof Levi and his team analysed WHO statistics between 1965 and 1998 and discovered that statistically, Irish women do not fare much better, with 82 deaths per 100,000, putting them 16th from the bottom of the league.
While death rates have dropped by 21% among Irishmen and 30% among women since the 1980s, improvements in Ireland have not kept pace with other EU countries. Some 12,000 deaths in Ireland are caused by heart disease each year, while 10,000 people suffer strokes, of whom 25% die before they leave hospital, Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) figures show.
IHF medical director and consultant cardiologist Dr Vincent Maher said the Swiss report underscores the urgent need for the cardiovascular heart strategy to be rolled out completely.
While the internationally-accepted ratio of cardiologists is 35 consultants per million people, in Ireland there are just seven per million, he said.
“A fire brigade service is what we have and fire-fighting is never going to deal with the problem. We need to put the manpower in place to facilitate preventative and educational campaigns for children and the general population.
“The heart strategy plan is great - if only it was put in place. It is being implemented in a piecemeal fashion. We keep bragging about being a very affluent country, but when it comes to the health of our population we are a third world country,” he said.
Dr Maher said that increased resources are vital to prevent people developing heart disease and urged the Government to tax junk food and use the revenue to offer schoolchildren free fruit.
While an expert group recommended that 25 extra consultant cardiologists be appointed this year, funding has been made available for just six posts, a spokesman for Health Minister Micheál Martin said.
Some 45 million was allocated to the cardiac strategy between 1999 and 2001 and the minister remains committed to the strategy, he said. The Government is ‘exploring’ how further new posts can be put in place this year.
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