ISLAMABAD, (Parliament Times) : An awareness session on heart disease and its causes was conducted in collaboration with civil society under the auspices of Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), chaired by former Surgeon General Pakistan Army General (retd) Kamal Akbar, while hosted by General Secretary of PANAH Sana Ullah Ghumman .
On this occasion Senior members of the PANAH , teachers, students, doctors, lawyers, civil society, Chairperson of the National Development Organization (NDO) Tehseen Fawad, Naveed Abbasi, members of the NDO, and people from all walks of life attended the session. An awareness walk was also organized to identify the diseases and their causes, in which the participants carried banners and playcards on which “We have come out to save the heart”, “Come with us”, “Be the voice of PANAH, get rid of smoking”. “Smoking kills heart disease”, other slogans were written.
Participants said the rise in heart disease is a wake-up call that needs time to be addressed, but only if the causes of heart disease are prevented.According to SANOFI, a medical provider, 30 to 40 percent of all deaths in Pakistan are due to heart disease, with 1 in 10 deaths between the ages of 30 and 70 occur due to heart disease. There is an urgent need to take practical steps to control the disease. One of the major causes of heart disease is smoking. The use of tobacco has increased in adults as well as children and women.
On this occasion, Sana Ullah Ghumman, General Secretary of Panah said that The effective way to control smoking is to impose a tax, which will increase the price of cigarettes, which will be out of reach of children and adults, will increase revenue and reduce the health burden. Prevention should be done on an emergency basis, so that our children and adults can be protected from this disease.
