'Community based approach needed to deal with heart failures'

New Delhi, April 9: With India having 5.4 million heart failure patients, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday said that a community level approach is required to tackle the problem and ensure its timely diagnosis. According to the premiere health institution, despite availability of medicines, people with heart failure face a high risk of death and poor quality of life. Up to half of them die within five years of diagnosis despite current treatment. “The need of the hour is that there should be a community level approach to identify patients with heart failure to ensure timely diagnosis and special treatment for improving their quality of life. For heart failure patients, it is not only their weak heart that needs to be taken care of but other organs like kidneys and lungs need equally special care,” said Sundeep Mishra, Professor of Cardiology at AIIMS. Mishra, who has been with the hospital for decades, said that a lot of Indians also do not understand the difference between heart failure and heart attack. Heart failure refers to the condition where the blood pumping capacity of the heart is reduced. (IANS)