PETALING JAYA, March 20 — A senior cardiologist at the National Heart Institute (IJN) has urged heart disease patients around the country to carry on with their scheduled appointments even with the Movement Control Order (MCO) in effect.

Dr Azlan Hussin, who is the senior consultant cardiologist at IJN, told Malay Mail that it is essential for heart disease patients to comply with their prescribed medication, as “rationing meds” to avoid going out will not do any favours to their condition.

“Compliance to medications as per prescriptions from doctors is a must,” said Dr Azlan.

“Rationing of medications by way of skipping or deferring medication should not be practised.”

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He added that it is important to not play doctor as patients should plan their medications appropriately with proper consultation from their doctors and hospital officials — to maintain a reasonable follow-up schedule amid the Covis-19 outbreak.

Heart disease patients are considered to be at “high risk” of contracting the virus, and while there is no concrete evidence to prove this, Dr Azlan said that there are many factors that would deem these patients to be more threatened by the virus.

“The observations coming out from the clinical experiences in China suggest that heart disease patients are perhaps at higher risk than the normal population.

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“There are no definitive answers for this, but it is reasonable to surmise that heart disease patients are generally older, have other concomitant illnesses and perhaps are at a lower level of internal immunity status than the younger population.”

He described that if a heart disease patient were to be infected with the Covid-19 virus, the infection could cause additional issues to the patient’s heart as well or aggravate existing heart conditions.

“By way of clinical observation, the chances of a patient with heart disease dying from a Covid-19 infection is approximately eight to 10 per cent higher than a patient without heart disease.”

Dr Azlan added that heart disease patients who become infected with the virus will experience symptoms or abnormalities such as rhythm conditions, cardiac contraction issues and inflammation of the heart structure.

Dr Azlan also said that there is no “extra” safety precaution that heart disease patients should take to protect themselves from the virus, but implored that they stick to the instructions given by the authorities and government.

“There is no specific strategy. Rather, these patients need strict adherence to social distancing, avoidance of public gatherings and regular washing of hands.

“It is also mandatory for them to follow the instructions given by the authorities that may change from time to time, depending on developments.”

With the Movement Control Order in effect till March 31 at least, Malaysians have been told to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus and allow medical officials room to breathe in their ongoing battle with the Covid-19 virus.