Africa-Press – Mauritius. Since the past three months, Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital has been undertaking a 24/7 Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) in a bid to reduce mortality and morbidity arising from myocardial infarction.
This pilot project will eventually be rolled out at the Victoria Hospital and the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam National Hospital. This announcement was made, today at the Dr A.
G. Hospital, in Port-Louis, by the Acting Director, General Health Services, from the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr R. K. Domun, during the launching of activities in the context of World Heart Day 2021.
He added that this service, which is being provided for the first time on a 24/7 basis, is in line with Government’s vision of constantly improving health services being delivered to the population. He highlighted that PCI not only saves lives of patients but is also cost-effective.
He recalled that the procedure involves the patient having a heart attack being taken straight to a cath lab to widen the artery, clear the blockage, and immediately have a stent inserted to improve blood flow, rather than using clot busting drugs.
Speaking about the incidence of heart disease, Dr Domun indicated that cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year.
The most important behavioural risk factors of heart disease and stroke, he added, are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol.
In Mauritius, CVD cause some 1,800 deaths each year, which account for 19% of all deaths. He indicated that some 991 heart interventions have been carried out in 2019 and 886 in 2020 and more than 126,000 patients have been examined for CVD in 2020. Hence the need to adopt a healthy lifestyle, practice a physical activity daily, and avoid smoking and drinking, he said.
Also present, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Mauritius, Dr Laurent Musango, recalled that CVD remain the world’s number one killer and that those living with the disease are more at risk of developing severe forms of the COVID-19 virus. He thus appealed to the elderly with comorbidities to get vaccinated against the COVID-19.
Speaking about the theme of World Heart Day 2021 which is “Use Heart to Connect”, Dr Musango observed that the healthcare crisis brought about by the COVID-19 has highlighted an urgent need to find different and innovative ways to connect people to heart health, particularly in lower resource areas and communities.
Emphasis is being laid on harnessing the power of digital health to improve awareness, prevention and management of CVD and telehealth, through the use of digital tools, which have a huge role to play to improve prevention, diagnosis and care of CVD, he underlined.
The WHO Representative also congratulated the Government for placing the management of CVD on top of its agenda. He further reiterated WHO’s ongoing commitment to support Mauritius in protecting the health and lives of the population.
For his part, the Consultant in Charge of Cardiology at Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital, Dr O. Shamloll, dwelt on the Primary PCI service being offered on a 24/7 basis at the hospital and indicated that since the past three months, 78 patients have undergone this procedure.
He lauded the treatment since it further improves survival, there are fewer complications such as strokes and recurring heart attacks, and patients who have primary PCI stay a shorter time in hospital than patients who have thrombolysis.
He also expressed gratitude to the dedicated staff of the Unit and observed that Primary PCI is a very complex service and to deliver it safely requires a specialised team of cardiologists, nurses, radiographers and clinical physiologists to be available 24/7.
