Stroke incidence on the rise but lack of treatment facilities

Updated date: 09/10/2023 05:47:48

Recently, while delivering the opening speech of the new school year, the Principal of a high school in Dong Thap province suffered a stroke and died. Before that, a male driver driving a passenger car in District 5 (HCMC) suddenly had a stroke and died on the way to the hospital… The alarm bell about stroke continues to ring.

Emergency care and treatment of stroke patients at People's Hospital 115 (Photo: QUANG HUY)

"Death disease" in the 4.0 era

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Huy Thang - Vice President of the Vietnam Stroke Association, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Stroke Association, said that according to the world stroke map, Vietnam is among the countries with the highest risk of stroke, with an estimated rate of more than 218/100,000 people. If the population is nearly 100 million people, the number of stroke cases will be around 200,000 cases/year. However, currently, Vietnam only has 110 units and stroke centers established nationwide. When the first signs of stroke appear, emergency treatment of patients must race against time to save every brain cell.

Therefore, pre-hospital emergency care for stroke patients is very important, if performed quickly, it will help patients shorten the time to reach the nearest stroke center. However, many provinces and cities do not have treatment facilities or have them but they cannot maintain 24/7 examination, causing many patients to miss the "golden time" for treatment in the first hours.

According to Dr. Nguyen Ba Thang - Head of Stroke Unit, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, stroke is a condition in which the brain is seriously damaged due to the interruption or significant reduction of blood supply to the brain. At that time, the brain falls into a state of oxygen deficiency and lack of nutrients to nourish the cells. Within a few minutes, if not supplied with enough blood, brain cells will gradually die. Each part of the brain is responsible for a certain function such as motor function, sensation, vision, hearing, etc.

When a stroke occurs, the damaged part of the brain cannot assume its original function, leading to the appearance of symptoms: hemiplegia, numbness and loss of sensation, loss of vision on one side or complete blindness, loss of language, coma...

“Stroke is considered a “death disease” in the 4.0 era because it can occur in anyone, at any age,” informed Dr. Nguyen Ba Thang.

Lack of qualified treatment units

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Vietnam currently has 36 stroke centers that have been awarded Diamond, Gold, and Platinum stroke certifications by the President of the World Stroke Association. Of these, 7 hospitals have achieved Diamond certification, 20 hospitals have achieved Gold certification, and 9 hospitals have achieved Platinum certification.

These standards require hospitals and centers to meet many strict criteria in treatment based on the best current recommendations for patients evaluated and awarded by the World Stroke Organization on a quarterly basis.

For the Diamond standard, the time required for a stroke patient to receive emergency care, examination, testing, CT scan, consultation, and medication from a medical facility is only 45 minutes.

“In order to provide rapid treatment for stroke patients within the first 60 minutes of onset, helping patients recover completely, it is necessary to establish standard stroke units across the country. Establishing stroke units, with a team of specially trained doctors and nurses, is considered a strategy that brings the greatest benefit to the community in many countries. In particular, with the requirement for treatment as soon as possible during the “golden time”, stroke units need to reach the necessary number according to geographical distance, to ensure that patients can reach the stroke unit within 60 minutes of onset”, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Huy Thang emphasized.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Huy Thang, there are still many provinces and large cities that do not have a stroke unit. In Vietnam today, each stroke unit is responsible for over 2,000 patients/year, while according to recommendations, in ideal conditions, there are only 500 patients/year/stroke unit. That means Vietnam will need 400 stroke units for 200,000 cases in the coming years.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga - Head of the Department of Neurology, Thong Nhat Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, each region or province, depending on the population, will need to arrange a stroke center and 2-4 satellite stroke units as a division in treatment. The stroke center is the final level, the stroke unit is the first level, medical examination and treatment facilities without a stroke unit are the basic level that transfers patients to the first level and the first level to the final level. Therefore, there are 2 issues that need to be solved: increasing the number of stroke units; the Ministry of Health should have a plan for stroke units for provinces and cities according to geographical distance and population.

Stroke screening and examination price chaos

The recent increase in stroke cases has become a nightmare for many people. Taking advantage of this psychology, many medical facilities in Ho Chi Minh City have promoted screening for this disease with prices ranging from several million to tens of millions of dong. However, experts assert that doing too many screening packages is both costly and ineffective.

Specifically, the stroke screening package is announced on the website of the Victoria clinic system with a price of nearly 4.3 million VND; at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital Clinic in Ho Chi Minh City (District 10) it costs 5.8 million VND; at FV Hospital (District 7) it costs 21.4 million VND; at the American International Hospital (Thu Duc City) it costs 17.5 million VND.

According to THANH AN - KIM HUYEN (SGGP)

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