Muksemul Hakim, 42, who worked at the Chattogram Custom House, felt pain in his neck and limbs, nausea and dizziness one afternoon but thought little of it; when he worsened that night he was taken to hospital, but could not be saved. A report in The Daily Observer says such sudden deaths of apparently healthy working people are no longer isolated.

According to the World Health Organization, about 71 per cent of all deaths in Bangladesh are caused by non-communicable diseases such as stroke, diabetes, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer and kidney disease. Worldwide, the WHO says, about 82 per cent of premature NCD deaths before age 70 occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Citing the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the report says cardiovascular disease, especially coronary artery disease, is gradually becoming an epidemic in Bangladesh, with high blood pressure and heart failure also rising; an IEDCR paper also names mental health problems as a cause of sudden death. Many of these diseases develop silently and are found only once complications appear.

Doctors quoted in the report say the first sign of a heart attack is usually pain in the middle of the chest that keeps growing and spreads to the left arm and neck; pain in the jaw or back can also be a sign. Severe abdominal pain, breathlessness, heavy sweating, nausea or vomiting also call for seeing a doctor without delay.

Citing Britain's National Health Service, the report explains that a stroke happens when blood supply to part of the brain stops and cells die, which is different from a heart attack. People over 60 are most at risk, but younger people are now also having strokes, the report says.

Photo: Jesse K. Alwin, U.S. Marine Corps / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: The Daily Observer