• Submitted by: lena campos
• Health and Medicine
• 08 / 23 / 2013

---

Cuba develops a community-oriented cardiac rehabilitation program aimed at the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of patients, including children suffering from congenital cardiopathies, an expert said in Havana.

Doctor in Medical Science Eduardo Rivas Estany, who heads the Cuban Cardiology Society, said that the pediatric cardiology network here has helped lower infant mortality, whose rate in 2012 was reported at 4.6 in every one thousand inhabitants, the lowest indicator in The Americas.

Cardiology services are available in all Cuban provinces, with modern technology and specialized medical treatment, which is considered as advanced as the services being offered in developed nations, said the doctor.

This reality allowed taking the deaths from heart conditions to a second place after cancer by the end of 2012. Heart diseases prevailed the first cause of death over the past fifty years.

Doctor Estany, who is the president of the Heart Friends around the World Society, said that heart conditions constitute the first cause of death on the planet, as well as of premature labor incapacity in many countries.

Although the indicator has been reduced in Cuba, 30 percent of deaths every year on the island is due to heart conditions, with Ischemic heart disease showing the largest prevalence, said the expert.

With this in mind, Doctor Estany insisted in the significance of preventing heart diseases by modifying  factors such as the smoking habit, the lack of physical exercise, inappropriate diet among others.

Source: ACN