PUTRAJAYA, Sept 29 — Some 15 per cent of the 109,164 medically confirmed deaths in the country in 2019 were due to heart disease, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In a statement released in conjunction with World Heart Day today, he said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 18.6 million deaths due to heart disease were recorded worldwide in the same year.

Dr Noor Hisham said the death toll from heart disease was expected to rise, especially as the world faced the Covid-19 pandemic which made access to information and treatment of heart disease and non-communicable diseases more difficult.

He also encouraged the community to take advantage of government health programmes for screening and intervention.

Among them are the "Komuniti Sihat Pembina Negara” (Kospen) programme, health screening programmes conducted by the Social Security Organisation, as well as clinics with special services for the B40 target group.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said high-risk heart patients could get serious complications if they were infected with Covid-19.

"Apart from completing the Covid-19 vaccination and adopting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and new norms, patients need to stay healthy to increase their resistance to Covid-19 and its complications,” he said.

He said the use of digital technology could also help ensure that people throughout the country had access to the necessary information on the prevention and treatment of heart disease.

World Heart Day is celebrated annually on September 29, with the aim of combating cardiovascular-related diseases and reducing the global burden of disease. — Bernama